#danny pretending to be fully alive

[starlord-the-endless]

"Well, if we go by physical age, you're older. Though chronologically, he's most likely older. Though, we can't assume things here." Red Robin mutters to himself.

Except Kon hears every word. "Ya know what, he's my brother now. We'll figure out who's older later." Kon goes in to hug his new brother.

Danny is shocked, but accepts the hug awkwardly and pats Superboy's back.

"Awe, look at our boys, Lex!" Superman gushes.

"What?!" Everyone exclaims, including some bewildered citizens and newscasters.

Luckily, Danny, for some unknown reason *cough* ghost powers *cough*, doesn't show up on camera because he will not be remembered as the love child between a bald fruitloot and underwear wearing cheerio.

Superman looks confused for a second before his face goes bright red, "I-I didn't," he sputtered, "That's not what I meant!"

Lex drags a hand over his face and thinks, 'Great, now I have two children to convince to leave their father for me. Wait! No! Stupid Superman!'

To say the least, it was a huge scandal the next day that Superman had two kids with Lex Luthor.

The healine read:

Lex Luthor and Superman: Archnemeses or bitter Exes

He'd been flying above Metropolis.

Like a good ghost! Doing nothing but relax! Enjoying the weather, really.

It was so cool, Superman came up to him, they talked even! Superman was very, very, uncomfortable when Danny mentioned he was kinda dead.

It was really awesome.

Yeah, the keypoint being was.

Now? Now he is in Superman's arms, very much alive after being hit by a stray beam from Lex Luthors newest invention, quite literally hit from the sky when he didn't expect it and out of f reflex turned back human.

"I'm... alive?" He jokes weakly, smiling awkwardly at Superman's stare.

Danny considered this awkward.

Clark was processing the fact Lex Luthor somehow managed to bring back someone from death, his hands now full of said miracle and—

Shit, does the kid even have family left? What's he going to tell Lois!?

[sukeruton-san]

Random idea Sorta Maybe Blind

Clockwork has been teaching Danny how to do pretty much everything blind. why is unknown

Untill now

After a way too close call with his parents/GIW he almost got fully dissected! He decided to initiate plan 42 Stich wounds,Grab shit,and hall ass to Gotham. Gotham has enough ectoplasm for him to stay long term not nearly as much as Amity Park but it has enough

After one pain filled flight he arrives in a dungey bathroom in Gotham. He looks in the mirror and sees

Oh

What the fuck!?!?

Apparently even though Gotham has a decent amount of ectoplasm He didn't know he needed way more to look alive. He looks ill!?! his skin became three shades paler making his bruises and eyebags stand out more. his hair being way more wild than usual and fluffy-er? He somehow looks smaller and skinner than before, and his eyes

Oh ancients his eyes

There still blue but they're diluted they have that heavy milk quality to them and his pupils are permanently dilated. He can see but he looks like he can't

That's why Clockwork taught him how to do things blind so he can pretend to be blind! cuz there's no way people are going to believe that he can see!?!

He grabbed his bag packed and gifted from Sam, Tucker, and Jazz left the bathroom, clossed his eyes, and started to figure out what he should do.

Bruce's adoption sense seems to be tingling He wonders what that's about.

[bluerosefox]

Her Astrophel and Sterling

hmmm

Hmmmmmmmm

You know what.

You know those AU's where the Batfam finds or learns about either hidden or thought to be dead Al Ghul Danny! with a deaged/daughter Dani (Ellie) (I should know, I created a few of those storylines) but what if, now hear me out, what if instead of them finding Danny first its Talia.

Do I want Talia discovering her thought to be dead son to be alive? Yes. Do I want her to find him while investigating Amity Park when the League gets reports of 'Lazarus creatures/water'? Yes.

DO I WANT HER TO KNOCK ON THE FENTON'S DOOR, fully ready to pretend/honey talk her way into the house to uncover what the Fenton's know, ONLY TO MEET A LITTLE ELLIE?!

YES.

Ellie whose eyes and hair look like a copy of her Beloved but she can see bits and pieces of herself as well. Talia knows the child in front of her was not fully her's though but everything makes sense when she hears a voice, a voice she hasn't heard in ages but as a mother just knows, speak out.

"Ellie! I thought I said do not answer the door my Sterling."

"But Daddy, yous was busy fighting the hotdoggys!"

Talia's eyes widen when she finally catches sight of familiar black hair and blue eyes.

and she could only lightly whisper a old nickname she hasn't dared uttered in ages, a name she secretly gave her son due to his love of the stars "Astrophel..."

[gaywriterdude]

Time Travel AU (prologue)

fic | masterpost | next

inspired by this post from @hello-eden and @gaddaboutgriffon (i recommend going through all the reblogs there’s some great ones)

Daniel James Fenton lived a tragic, short life. Orphaned at a young age, adopted by Jack and Maddie Fenton a few years later. Neglected by everyone but his older sister, who was a child herself. Bullied by almost all of his peers, despite interference from caring teachers. Barely surviving a terrible lab accident due to his parents’ negligence, then suffering through bouts of depression and chronic pain in the year following, only to die unremarkably at 15 due to long-lasting effects from the accident. He was mourned by his sister and two best friends, as well as a few community members, but was overall barely a blip on everyone’s radar. His parents—who were already thought to have a few screws loose—went insane after his death, most likely from guilt, and joined a shady government agency that was hunting ghosts and terrorizing innocent civilians. His sister and best friends fled town as quickly as they could, but were said to be doing well for themselves.

At least, that’s what the gossip of Amity Park said.

In reality, Danny Fenton lived a much more tragic, much shorter life.

He was born Danyal, son of immigrant parents who fled to America when he was 3 years old. He didn’t remember his last name, or what and where they were running from. They died in a car crash a few months after arriving in the states, partway through a cross-country drive to California. Danyal remembered talks of California, where it was warm and people would stare at them less.

Danyal also died in that car crash, flung from the vehicle while his parents burned inside it. He remembered bleeding out slowly and listening to their screams. He also remembered the blinding green light, a natural portal to the Infinite Realms that opened under him just as his eyes closed for the last time. And Danyal was never alive again, not fully.

He awoke in the hospital, and for a time he didn’t remember. He maintained that lie, even when his memories came back, because he wished they didn’t.

Danyal was different after that, saw things differently. Sometimes he swore his eyes flashed green, and his fingernails sharpened, but it was gone in an instant.

He was sent to a group home for boys, where English was beaten into him for the next few years and he was renamed ‘Daniel’ and forced to cut his hair short. He hated it there, but a few of the older boys took care of him every time he came back to the bedroom with fresh bruises, so it was okay.

One day, he met a girl with fire for hair. The boys had been banished to the park because they were being too rowdy, but one of the older kids said the head caretaker just had too much fun the night before, whatever that meant. The girl pushed him on the swing and said her name was Jazz and that she was visiting from out of town because her parents were on a work trip. Danyal liked Jazz, because she was nice and not just because she had fire for hair.

Jazz decided she liked him, too, and told him that she was going to be his big sister whether her parents liked it or not. Her parents treated child acquisition much like getting a pet, in his opinion, and told Jazz that if she wanted a little brother she had to take care of him. But, soon he was renamed Daniel James Fenton, and any traces of his past life were washed away. That was okay, though, because he had a sister. She even learned some Arabic for him in secret, and they had whispered conversations late at night when they couldn’t sleep. He started going by Danny and pretended it was short for Danyal.

Danny died again 8 years later at 14. Electrocuted to death in his own basement, by an invention his adoptive parents made. This time he died fully. This time the portal that opened on top of him was much, much stronger. He died and was revived over and over again for an eternity and a couple seconds. When he was flung from the portal, he was fully dead and fully alive. Schrödinger's boy.

The year that followed was probably the worst of his short, miserable half-life.

No one told him how to be dead. Ghosts tried to, but since he was also alive it didn’t really work. He didn’t understand the intrinsic language of cores that all the other ghosts did, and saw their attempts at bonding as attacks.

He was terrified for his life daily. He was fending off other ghosts, trying to minimize damage to the town and damage to the ghosts. He was also attempting to hide the fact that he was dead, and alter every one of his adoptive parents’ inventions so that they wouldn’t End him fully, and fighting off an insane godfather with less than pure intentions. The Guys in White showed up, and things went from bad to worse. Sam and Tucker tried to call the Justice League, but something the GIW did stopped all outside communication.

Then, as if Danny didn’t have enough on his plate and trying to balance school on top of that, Vlad (said insane godfather) released the evil tyrant king of the dead, who had been imprisoned by his council for a reason. The tyrant king then pulled all of Amity Park into the Infinite Realms. Of course, Danny was the only one who could fight him off and no adult ghosts who knew what they were doing could help, and by defeating Pariah Dark Danny accidentally became the next king of the Infinite Realms.

Even then, he had no one to help him until months later when Vlad’s antics made the Ancients realize that Danny didn’t know what the fuck he was doing. But that took having to battle his evil future self Dan, being tortured by Vlad, and fighting off and subsequently adopting a failed evil clone of his. It was only then that Clockwork realized that standing back and not interfering in “timely matters” as he called it wasn’t working.

Danny was actually taught how to be a ghost. He learned that he was technically a baby ghost and all of his rogues had been trying to have friendly brawls with him as a way to teach him. He was also thrown into the deep end of learning how to be a future king to a literal infinite realm of beings.

All the while the GIW was attacking ghosts and civilians alike, and his parents were becoming more and more like the mad scientists Batman locked up, and Danny still had school.

And then, as if his half-life wasn’t hard enough, Frostbite came to him with the melting cores of Dan and Ellie. Dan, who had been put in time-out by Clockwork and had progressed enough to go on errands for him and been attacked. And Dani, who was unstable from the beginning but who Danny had thought was doing better with frequent treatments from the Yetis. The only way to save them was to take their broken cores inside his own to heal them.

Pregnant. He would be ghost pregnant at 15. Which was fine, it was all fine. He didn’t like Dan but he had been reformed outside of time and working to be better, and Ellie was his sister. Danny would save them.

It took almost 5 months before he started showing, but those 5 months were the most peaceful of his life. With his king-to-be training, he was able to send out a decree that all ghosts were to stay away from his home dimension for their own safety. He was also able to assign guards with the task of tracking down Vlad and imprisoning him. Though the man was on the run, he wasn’t bothering Danny. Danny could focus on school, and friends, and hiding from the GIW, who had lessened their forces a bit with the lack of ghosts.

When he started showing finally, he let the tentative peace get to him and decided to tell his parents everything.

It didn’t go well. He was shot with a weapon, a new one he hadn't had the chance to alter. Jack and Maddie were convinced that he was an evil ghost possessing their dead son’s body, and tried to capture him for experimentation.

He lost Dan and Ellie. He lost his parents, too, in a different way.

He fled to the Infinite Realms, blew up the portal and all of his parents' work, and decided that he was done with the human world.

[flwrkid14]

ohhh you know what id love to see in your writing style if you have the time? tim just... getting a kitten. getting a kitten and realizing this tiny innocent creature depends on him and simultaniously freaking out about it while settling into the role of owner. very much reminding him of his own childhood and dealing with thoughts of like... how could someone not love and cherish something completely innocent? basically making him rethink how he was treated. could definitely include danny co-parenting the kitty and just being lovely.

YOU DONT HAVE TO THOUGH AND I LOVE YOUR WRITING HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY RAHHH

hi anon!! tysm for the ask and the kind words !! <3 I hope u have a wonderful day too, and I had so much fun writing this !

Tim doesn’t mean to take the kitten home.

It’s raining. He’s bleeding. The alley is too cold, the sky too loud. And in the hush between thunder, there’s a sound like a whisper. Like a meow.

He follows it. Down a fire escape, behind a dumpster, into the alley’s lungs.

And there she is.

Shivering. Soggy. No bigger than his palm. His heart does something unfamiliar and awful in his chest. Her meow is hoarse and angry, and she bites his glove hard enough to draw blood. It's like love at first sight.

She meows again, and then cautiously plants herself on his boot like she’s made a decision.

It’s not a question. She’s coming with him.

---

At first, it’s chaos.

He googles everything. Kitten feeding schedules. Litter training. What it means when she purrs. What it means when she doesn't. He overthinks every sound she makes. He buys a cat tree taller than Damian. He reads labels on food like he’s defusing a bomb. He calls Alfred three times in one night because “her paw twitched in her sleep and I think she’s dying.”

Danny finds him sitting cross-legged on the floor at 3am, kitten curled on his hoodie, utterly still.

“She’s really taken to you,” Danny says, voice low.

Tim blinks up at him, dazed. “I think I’m her whole world.”

There’s a pause.

Danny smiles and crouches beside them, fingers brushing against Tim’s, “Yeah. Sounds about right.”

They don’t move for an hour.

---

Tim names her Cassiopeia. Because she’s dramatic and beautiful and just a little bit doomed. She is too small for her name. He whispers it like a secret anyway.

The first time she climbs onto his chest and falls asleep purring, something in Tim just… stops. Like a wire inside him went slack for the first time in years. It’s terrifying. It’s quiet. It’s warm.

She trusts him.

It's a small thing, barely a moment—Cassiopeia curling up on his chest with a sigh, a tiny, vibrating purr against the steady thrum of his heart. But it slams into him like a punch. A reminder. A question. A memory.

She’s so small. So soft. So painfully here, alive and warm and unafraid. And she looks at him like he’s a constant. Like he’s safety. Like she’s not even considering the idea that he might drop her, might walk away, might not come back.

That kind of trust is dangerous. That kind of love… it terrifies him.

Because Tim remembers being this small. Sitting on the floor of his childhood bedroom in silence so loud it rang in his ears. Because he knows what it’s like to eat dinner alone at a table too long, to pad barefoot through an empty penthouse and realize no one is looking for you. He remembers curling into himself under too many blankets and pretending that he was a ghost—easy to miss, easier to forget.

Cassi is too young to know what it's like to be forgotten.

And he wants to keep it that way.

She just wants warmth. Food. Gentle hands and a heartbeat beneath her tiny paws. She doesn’t want him to prove anything. Doesn’t expect brilliance. Doesn’t care about masks or missions or mistakes.

She just wants warmth. Food. Gentle hands and a heartbeat beneath her tiny paws.

And somehow, despite everything—despite the cold parts of him that never fully thawed, despite the cracks he tried to fill with caffeine and case files—she’s decided he’s enough.

He’s what she picked.

Tim doesn’t know what to do with that. He doesn’t know how to be someone worth trusting. But he wants to try. For her, for the tiny kitten making biscuits on his chest and purring contently with no problems in the world, he wants to try.

The ache in his chest is too deep to name. It sits between his ribs like something ancient and exhausted, something he's been carrying for so long he forgot it was even there.

He blinks hard. Swallows twice. Then buries his face in her fur and breathes.

She smells like laundry detergent and the soft plastic of the toy mouse Danny gave her. She smells like safety. Like a future he didn’t think he got to have.

He doesn't cry. Not really.

But something in him finally exhales.

She is safe. Loved. Spoiled rotten.

And maybe, just maybe, so is he.

[stars-obsession-pit]

(Not) a full ghost

Danny knows he fully died in the portal accident. He may still be able to look alive, but he knows it’s just an illusion.

After all, he had to bury his own corpse. That leaves no room for doubt in his mind.

So it’s no wonder he felt a bit disconnected from his life after that. He may still pretend to be alive, but it’s hard to care as much about his future when he knows he’ll never actually grow up. His relationships are honestly probably the only thing keeping him going with the ruse.

At least as Phantom he has a purpose, something to fight for without any need to lie to himself about its meaning.

…what the hell is a halfa? Why have the other ghosts started calling him one? Do they not think he belongs as one of them either?

[aealzx]

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Update Post

Prologue | AO3

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Consciousness after a difficult battle that he ended up heavily injured from was a struggle even when the injuries had been something more like bruised ribs. But waking up from a self induced cryo sleep made Danny feel like he was chained down in the blackest pits of the Infinite Realms. Was he actually dead? Had that been it, and he wasn’t able to even pretend to be a fully alive human anymore? His limbs felt numb, but his fingers also tingled slightly. A strange prickling sensation that wasn’t quite registering in his mind properly just yet. But slowly, dragging through an endless pit of tar clinging to his every effort, he started to feel less smothered in darkness. Sounds around him started registering as a muffled haze. He could feel the fabric of the blanket and sheets on his skin. The sunlight behind his eyelids made the dark feel more temporary. If only he could get them open. 

Yet before Danny could manage to get his eyelids to obey him his brain started to fully register the state he was in, his next breath bringing a burning pain scraping through the side of his chest, onto his shoulder. And with it the realization that what he thought was numbness was actually the subtle stinging burn from flesh that had been too cold for too long. He still felt cold, but he was currently too tense to shiver. The following breath hitched in Danny’s throat again and exited in a weak mix of a whimper and choked sob. He was definitely, very much alive and in so much pain. It was all he could do to twitch his arms up around his torso to try and smother the pain away. At least just enough that he could maybe think about something else. But for some reason someone was deciding to be cruel and while their touch was so tender on his wrists their hands were still pulling his arms away from his chest, ignoring his almost hiccuped gasps for air.

“Don’t apply pressure just yet. It won’t help.”

Whose voice was that? It was an adult man, but not someone that Danny recognized. And even though he managed to crack his eyes open for half a second his vision was too blurred by tears to see them properly. All he saw was a head of black hair. They had such a gentle voice though. It matched their grip on his arms.

“I’ve triggered a dose of morphine. Can you focus on taking deep breaths until it works?” The man’s voice was patient, coaxing, just trying to help. He had even shifted his hands to have his thumbs in Danny’s palms, gently rubbing into the muscle for comfort.

Danny knew hyperventilating was bad, so the request to breathe deeply made sense, even if it was hard to comply. His lungs either didn’t want to work, or the air hitched in his throat and escaped in another soft whimper. But he was trying, and the man seemed to appreciate that.

“That’s it. Follow along with me if you can,” he coaxed, his voice almost too soft and lulling back to sleep. He made his own breathing more audible so Danny could follow it easier. A deep, slow inhale. Then a gentle exhale. Another inhale, long but not endless. And a slow exhale. The morphine was quick to work, so by the fifth breath Danny was managing not to lose it, even though it shook coming in and leaving. But having someone else’s breath to try and follow proved more helpful than he thought it would. He could just keep his eyes closed, and focus on trying to match the rhythm being given to him. In. And out. Don’t strain too hard. Just make sure he was getting an even amount of air. And soon enough the pain in his chest and everywhere else was dulled enough that he could manage, and he cracked his eyes open to once again try to see who was there.

The man waited for Danny to consistently watch him for a second, continuing to breathe at a more even rate, before he smiled warmly and spoke up again. “It’s good to see you, Danny. My name is Bruce, and you’re in my manor. Sam, Tucker, and Danielle are in the kitchen with my children, getting breakfast. Jazz is next door, still asleep. I came to get her and noticed you stirring. You’ve been asleep for a long time. Aside from pain in your chest, how are you feeling?”

He answered a lot of questions Danny had, but also caused more to form. Yet for now Danny wasn’t too interested in getting them answered. He wondered where his parents were, but being told Jazz and the others were there placated his mind for now. It just took him a minute to find his voice, and Bruce carefully lowered his hands back to the quilt over him when he saw he was more relaxed.

“Are yo…d’ctor?” Danny mumbled.

Bruce chuckled lightly at the question. “No. Just some help.”

Oh. That didn’t answer the question about why he was there, nor did it allow Danny to ask the other question he had. But he ended up asking anyway. “Can you… fav’r … sedate me.. anyway?”

He felt Bruce’s shoulders sag at the request, worry pinching his brow. “No,” he answered, resting a hand on Danny’s arm. “Your family has been very worried about you. If you can manage to see them I think it would be better for all of you. You’ve been asleep for a few months now.”

At first Danny didn’t think his request was at all unreasonable. If he was hurting that bad then he really should just pass out for the day and sleep through it healing. Just like he always did. But then Bruce told him how long he’d already been asleep for and Danny sucked in a horrified breath. “Ja-,” his pained call for his sister cut off as he tried to sit up and merely managed to roll onto his undamaged side instead, grimacing as yet another whimper escaped him.

Bruce was quick to shift forward more, resting a hand on Danny’s back and upper arm to steady him, and try to keep him from moving more. “Try not to move suddenly, you’re still injured,” he cautioned, reaching for his phone in his pocket so he could contact Alfred. “I’m going to have someone bring Jazz here. Would you like to try sitting up?”

The hands on Danny were supposed to be in comfort, but it wasn’t hard to tell when the lad started squirming that he was thinking they were something else. He was used to being restrained. And while Bruce didn’t want him overexerting himself, he also didn’t want him to feel trapped. And the offer to let him sit up seemed to help, for Danny stopped squirming in favor of looking at Bruce in mild confusion for a moment before nodding.

Sucking in a stubborn breath, Danny pushed his arms underneath himself to try and shove himself upright on his own, fully expecting to be left alone to fail and prove he was too weak and should just behave. But to his surprise Bruce was careful in his movements to expertly help the boy upright. And once again Bruce’s hand rested on his back, while the other hovered in front of him to give him something to support himself on. Bruce didn’t even comment when dizziness caused Danny to lean against him, head knocking against his shoulder as he closed his eyes to block out his swimming vision.

“Danny?!”

Jazz’s voice from the doorway caused Danny to force his eyes open again, catching sight of his sister just as she crashed into the bed, half climbing onto it and pressing her hands against his cheeks. “Danny! Oh my gosh! You- Danny. Oh gosh.” Jazz’s breathless expressions of thankful disbelief in the form of repeating her brother’s name soothed the worry that had been in the back of Danny’s mind that he had been lied to and she wasn’t actually there. He gave her a weak smile, and tried to meet her gaze. But she didn’t make that easy for him, brushing his hair out of his face, giving him a huge kiss on the forehead, then eventually looping her arms around his torso to pull him into a firm hug. “You’re awake…?”

She sounded unsure. But Danny couldn’t blame her since he wasn’t super responsive yet. “Mhmm,” he made sure to hum in response. Give her a voice to reassure her instead of just vague motions. “S’sorry f… worrying y’you.” Now that he wasn’t tense from pain he was starting to shiver. But he’d just have to deal with it until there weren’t any strangers around. For now he could just return Jazz’s hug affectionately as well as use her to try and warm himself up a bit.

Jazz just wheezed a breath of mild disbelief, having not expected something so simple to be the first thing Danny said to her. “I’m just glad you’re awake,” she responded over budding tears, finding immeasurable comfort in her brother’s loose return hug. She didn’t miss the shivers shaking his form though, especially when they seemed to increase when Bruce moved away to give them space. She would have to address it in a minute though as the sound of rapidly approaching feet was the only heads up they got before Danielle’s form burst from the ground next to them.

“Danny?!- Hh! DANNY!” Danielle’s questioning tone was followed by a gasp before she called Danny’s name for certainty after his gaze shifted to look at her. She barely caught his smile before flinging her arms forward to snatch both of her siblings in a hug. Danny tried not to whimper again as the pressure on his chest hurt, but he still grimaced slightly.

“Gentle, Dani. He’s still hurt,” Bruce chided lightly.

“Sorry! Sorry,” Danielle apologized, but obediently loosened her grip as Sam and Tucker made it to the room as well.

“Danny!”

His name being called by his two best friends this time made Danny’s smile grow. “S’okay,” he quickly assured his baby sister before briefly raising a hand to greet his friends. “Hey g’guys,” was all he got out before two more bodies were added to the group hug.

“Dude, we were so worried!” Tucker cried.

“Don’t EVER do that again!” Sam chided as the best way she knew how to show her care.

“S’sorry,” Danny apologized, basking in the warmth of his friends and family being so close to him. There were other people coming into the room as well. A small crowd, but they were unexpectedly mostly keeping their distance. Only three other people actually entered the room, while the others were hovering at the doorway, peeking through. Bruce had moved once again to stay out of their way, but remained close by just in case.

“How are you feeling?” Sam asked, being the first to pull away so she could watch how he responded.

“....Dizzy,” Danny admitted, deliberately keeping his cheek against Jazz’s shoulder since that helped. “Cold. Morp’phine is n’nice.”

“Are you overloaded again? You’re shivering a lot. Your ice powers have built up too much, haven’t they,” Danielle pointed out, pulling away too and noting how much Danny was shivering.

Danny knew Danielle was a little loose lipped when it came to mentioning things, but her so casually mentioning his ability left him stunned, stiffening and holding his breath as his gaze flicked between the others in the room and he shrank against Jazz.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Jazz was quick to assure while nevertheless trying to provide comfort by shifting to shield Danny a little more. “They already know. They’re the ones that helped us take care of you. They got us some ectoplasm to give to you, and have already seen Dani shift forms.”

They already knew what he was? That was…. Unexpected. Danny wasn’t sure what he thought about that, other than he wasn’t fully comforted by having a room full of strangers know he wasn’t human. One of the older boys that had come into the room approached them, but to Danny’s surprise he just crouched where he could see him.

“You also put yourself in a cryogenic stasis of sorts. So the ice powers were kind of obvious,” Jason added casually.

Another boy entered the room this time, coming to join Jason crouched next to the bed. “You said something about overload though?” he asked, looking at Danielle before looking at Danny. “Do you need- Hi, I’m Tim by the way. Do you need to burn off some energy? Can you do that, or do we need to help in some way?”

Danny couldn’t help snorting at the random, mid sentence introduction. It was odd, but also nice considering aside from Bruce he had no idea who anyone else there was.

“Danny generates ectoplasm and ice energy. But unlike the ectoplasm, the ice doesn’t have a cap. If it builds up too much it starts leaking out,” Danielle explained.

Oh. So they really were just open about everything with these people. How long had they been helping? They were starting to not seem so bad. Not like all the other people that seemed to only be friends with him after beating him up a few times. “I can d’do it myself,” Danny admitted, deciding to try and get on board with everyone else and attempt to trust these people. “J’just… d’don’t want to f’freeze everyone.”

“Eh,” Jason shrugged, the completely opposite reaction Danny had expected someone to have. “Wouldn’t be the first time. We can handle it.”

“Speak for yourself,” Stephanie scoffed from where she and the rest of the family were hanging out just inside the doorway now.

“Yeah, I’d rather not get frostbite,” Duke agreed with a chuckle.

“Poor babies,” Danielle jabbed, grinning, but still shifted to settle on the bed in front of Danny and behind Jazz. “They’re all vigilantes like us. So they’ve seen some crazy stuff already. But don’t worry, I’ll help make sure you don’t freeze anyone. You’ll feel much better without all that excess buildup anyway,” she explained briefly because of Danny’s very confused expression, holding her hands out in front of her with her palms up.

Danny’s expression moved to one of surprise at that revelation, the notion blanketing his emotions with an unfamiliar stillness. They were like him and Danielle? And she was comfortable enough with them to talk so openly about everything, and casually offer to help him? That earned a myriad of emotions that Danny wasn’t willing to deal with right then, so instead he focused on what Danielle had asked of him, his expression softening into a smile. ”... Thanks,” he said quietly, sagging against Jazz for a moment. He really would feel better without all this extra ice energy trying to convince him he was a walking glacier. So without waiting for further prompting he drew a longer breath, no matter how much it hurt to expand his ribs, and raised his own hand above Danielle’s.

The next exhale Danny gave came as a rippling puff of chilled air curling into the space in front of him. With another slow inhale the iced particles that didn’t immediately disperse started to pull towards the space just above his open hand. Then more icy mist began to form, almost agonizingly slow at first before gathering into a soft swirl of frost, coalescing into a gradually growing orb. Danny’s eyes had closed again as he focused on expelling the excess ice energy that had built up within him over the months, forcing it into as small of a point as he could manage so he didn’t affect the others in the building. But with the amount of energy being pooled into the condensed orb it was hard to keep them completely unaffected. Those who were standing in the room felt the temperature drop quickly, their own breath fanning out in front of them as even the color of the room seemed to mute into winter shades. If just for a few minutes.

It wasn’t long at all before Danny’s features began flinching intermittently from the stress. A brief grimace across his face, his brows furrowing more and more. His fingers twitching under the now four centimeter orb. His breath forced through clenched teeth as he tried to keep it steady. Just a bit more. Just get rid of enough that he didn’t have to worry about it for a while.

When the others involuntarily shivered and the orb had reached slightly over five centimeters Danny stopped. One more exhale of frozen air as the orb dropped into his palm and drove it towards the bed. Instead of the back of his hand meeting the quilt though, Danielle’s hands caught his hand in both her palms.

“...Look at you. Didn’t even need me,” Danielle giggled, turning Danny’s hand so the orb of ice dropped into her palm. Judging by the way her hand dipped slightly, the others could tell it was heavy. And despite the feed of energy being cut off, a gentle mist of cold air still wafted around it. The temperature of the room rose from that of a winter night to that of a slightly over used air conditioner as well.

“Feel better?” Jazz asked after Danny gave a weak snicker that turned into a tiny whimper at Danielle’s comment.

“...Yeah,” Danny confirmed, realizing Jazz was currently fully supporting him now and reluctantly having to let her do so while he tried to gather the will to move. But as soon as he had some physical energy back, he found himself unable to keep from pressing into Jazz a little more, the hand that had lost the ice orb curling around her. “Still cold,” he admitted, hating how pathetic his voice sounded. “But not because of my ice powers.”

“You still have a fever,” Jazz consoled, trying to keep from leaning too far over as he put more weight on her, and looking around for an easy blanket to grab. “Blankets should actually help now though.”

Luckily Dick wasn’t going to leave her to her plight, and stepped forward with an extra blanket made of soft faux fur, and threaded with thin heating wires. He was careful as he draped it over Danny’s bare and bandaged shoulders, tucking it in close and clicking it on to a low setting after plugging it in. “I know you haven’t been awake that long, but you shouldn’t try to force yourself to stay awake either. You still need rest,” Dick advised, noting how Danny was struggling to open his eyes again to look at who had come closer. “Just take it easy, and don't stress if you fall asleep again, okay?”

“...Okay,” Danny agreed, but figured he’d still try to stay awake for a while. At least long enough that his friends and family would feel less worried about him.

“....Can I keep that?” Jason suddenly asked, pointing at the orb in Danielle’s hands and earning a snort from several people in the room.

“Why? Weirdo,” Stephanie snickered, finally breaking the unspoken rule to stay back and coming just a bit closer. It was colder near the ice ball, to an uncomfortable level of chilled.

“Because if it always does that, then I don’t have to pay for AC,” Jason retorted.

Danielle laughed, but Bruce looked concerned. “Are you unable to afford AC?”

“No! I can afford my apartment just fine, Bruce,” Jason assured quickly, not wanting to deal with Bruce’s hovering right then. “But if I don’t have to pay for it then why should I?”

It was a fair argument, if unexpected, and Danny found himself snickering softly at the whole thing. “Sure,” he agreed, not needing the little orb of ice for himself anyway. “But only if you can carry it home on your own.”

The little tease from her brother, showing his more mischievous side, caused Jazz to smile warmly, feeling her throat tighten just a bit. She had missed him. It was so good to hear he was at least feeling well enough to poke at others.

“...Okaaayy,” Jason agreed, confused why that would be such a big deal and holding his hand out to receive the orb.

Danielle raised her hands above his, and grinned playfully. “Both hands,” she directed.

“It can’t be that-”

“Both. Hands,” Danielle repeated, grinning with just as much sass as her brother had and waiting for Jason to obediently raise both hands together before she opened her own.

The orb fell at an alarming rate and Jason couldn’t hold back the grunt he made as he barely kept from having his hands crushed under the weight. “What the-,” he hissed, hefting the orb experimentally. “That’s heavy.”

“Duh,” Danielle snickered. “He put enough ice in there to easily freeze over a city.”

“... Fair enough,” Jason grimaced, now understanding why Danny had given him the challenge of carrying it home as payment for it. “Cheeky bastards.”

Jazz flinched in offense at the name calling, but her two siblings just snickered like the little gremlins they were.

____________________

G'morning Danny 8'D welcome to ow

Quick update because I actually had this one mostly typed and already drawn before the previous one X'D just got in the mood for the vibes a while ago and finished things up easy enough.

I need help again though ._. How do I wrap this up and get them back home? Any suggestions?

____________________

Tag list: @galaxy-sharks-and-bottled-ships, @starscreamlover, @nerdynonnativenarnian, @dragongoblet, @megacharizardx99

@bellathecatastrophe, @cj-ghostemoji-destielpie, @asexual-insomniac, @wolfeyedwitch, @tkiesai, 

@fanaroff, @raven1508, @nebulainajar, @serasvictoria02, @oliocelottafanfics,

@honeysuckletook, @omniithe-deer, @wolf-under-the-stars, @gingernutcalo, @that-random-fangirl,

@op-sys-chaos, @kirasigncomics, @ehobep

[demon-at-peace]

DP+DC ghost graves

Graves are incredibly important to ghosts. They let the ghost remember, they are so very important. A grave can be where you died. A grave can be the place you were buried. It's the place you were laid to rest and it's a safe space. Your grave is safe it lets you rest when you need too.

When someone walks over a ghost's grave they shudder like drenched in icy water. This could either be the portal is Danny's grave. But I don't feel like that's right. I think he doesn't have one. Danny has never had a rose on his grave, he's never been laid to rest. this is part of the reason he's so obsessed with protection. He has not been mourned.

Danny is restless, ghosts leave Amity and he can't fight. So he leaves. I imagine he's obsessive about protection to levels of self destruction. So he fights, and then he fully dies. I imagine he doesn't get a grave this time either he digs himself a hole in the ground and puts his name on a stone. He leaves it. And he pretends it never happened. No one mourns him this time either.

He joins the JL not telling them how he got his powers. Yet slowly he becomes more and more tired. He looks wiped out. He asks Frostbite, and well gets advice, gets told to share, to visit his grave. He says graves make you peaceful. he tells Danny to mourn himself, tells him he's worked to much and he needs to accept it properly.

So he tells them he's using his vacation days. When asked why he says it's time he mourns. Naturally they inquire about what happened, and he tells them how he got his powers. He tells them that he wants to mourn, because before hand he never did, he never accepted it properly.

They go with him. And they put flowers on his grave. They mourn him. They cry. And when Danny visits his grave after he feels everything they felt for him and cries, because he's never been mourned before.

well yep, sad Danny over working himself. also I imagine he forgets he died and is no longer partially alive, anyhow what do you think?

[fuzzybirdie]

This work was fully inspired by the following prompt/post and @freedomanddisorder 's amazing art, please! Check out both!

~~~

Ch.1 A Vacation To Gotham! What Could Go Wrong? (Pt1)

It had been 1 year scince Danny's accident, and 1 year since his parent's masterpiece miraculously started working. In celebration, danny's parents decided to take a holiday to gotham. Mostly to look at the bats, who were obviously ghosts. Just look at signal! Litterally creating ghost orbs. But, as the bats only come out at night (excluding signal) there nothing to do during the day. Nothing exept the mundane things like amusement parks and fast food restraunts.

Danny could tell that his parents were bored and upset that they couldn't interview any bats, (and boy, was danny glad that they'd chilled out after a year of actually interacting with ghosts) but they were still trying to make things fun for themselves too.

The Fentons had split up near the enterance, agreeing to meet up at the food stalls arround 1 for lunch. His parents went to the haunted house - ever reasearching, Jazz would wonder arround for a bit before deciding on her rides, while Danny went right for the roller coasters.

On the way, Danny had an idea; his parents were on the other side of the park, so they wouldn't question him if his hair and eyes suddenly changed colour, and he had been meaning to experiment with looking more alive in ghost form...Ducking into a bathroom, he started transforming. Slowly, Carefully, not touching the clothes, there. Finished, he looked at the miror to find- "I look like a ghost in a tee and jeans."-his skin still had the green tint from the ectoplasam in his veins, and his hair was steaming like dry ice.

The hair was more obviously inhuman, so he tackled that first. It would need to be solid, condensed, thicker and thicker, -too thick!

What once was steam now looked like a plain old block of ice. Maybe, his hair being made of ice would be fine if he seperated it a bit? If he peeled each layer into tiny little strings luke normal hair. Little by little, piece by piece, perfect. The ice string hair was curlier than he'd thought, waves of snow tickling his ears, eyebrows and the back of his neck.

The next problem was the green tint. This would take some thinking. He couldn't just pretend to be cosplaying a Vulcan from star trek. Could he turn his ectoplasam back into blood? Probably not, either he'd end up 'suffocating' (if that was even the right word) as a ghost or just turn back into a human and need to do this all over again.

Veto'd, too dangerous.

Thinking back, didn't frostbite say there was something odd with his ectoplasam and blood? Thats right! There were slight ammounts of ectoplasam in his blood and vice versa. If he could manipulate his remaining blood into the capillaries along the surface of his skin, it'd look like he still had a beating heart!...

Ok, that sounded bad even in his mind.

Shaking off that thought, he pushed his blood to his skin and checked the mirror one last time. Normal teen with white hair? Check. Now, Roller Coaster!

~~~

This is the first! || next

Thanks for reading! Unfortunately, I had to cut this in half. (Curse the word limit!) When I have time to post part 2 I'll link it down here. If the links work... Anyways! Please tell me if there's anything I can improve! Last time I posted something was back in... 2016? So i'm very out of practice

[phantomphangphucker]

Phic Phight - I’m Not Above A Love To Cash In

@a-closet-emo @coyotecrackers @DizzlyPuzzled @vigilant-insomniac @Kawaiijohn @fangirlwriting-stories

Danny’s kind of out of touch with humanity, that was kinda the point in the end. He had a job to do, people and ghosts to protect, a dimension to rule, and crazy bigoted ghost hunters to keep in line; potential distractions and collateral weren’t useful for anyone. Though maybe those would have been good for Danny’s well being, not that he cared too much about that.

Danny sighed at the little envelope, how the heck any of them even tracked down where he was living he had no freaking clue. Oh well, it was here now, meaning he couldn’t feign ignorance. The A-listers, or whatever they called themselves these days, had set up a reunion and had invited even him ‘Freaky Fenton’. Course they also managed to get the ghost mailman to deliver one to Phantom as well, which was slightly insane because as far as they knew Phantom had literally never gone to school at all??? Wasn’t it kinda weird to invite someone that not only wasn’t in your grade but wasn’t even in the school, to a high school reunion? Eh whatever, who was he to dictate who they invited, Dash probably demanded it actually. Ugh. So that left him with what to do about it, it would be rude as fuck for either Danny to not show and it would hurt his image in both forms. Jack and Maddie would spin some story about how it was proof that Phantom didn’t care about people, and then would say the same about Danny Fenton except that Fenton had been ‘tainted’ by Phantom.

To say they weren’t getting along these days would be an understatement. It made him very happy he never told them about being Phantom as a teen though. That would have ended with him strapped down on a table, no doubt.

His whole secret identity was the entire problem here really, his forms looked effectively identical meaning the two sides of him never being seen right next to each other was kind of important. Even being in the same room was too big a risk, if someone simply glanced from one to the other it was obvious. In photos he was fine, since ghosts messed up photographs and videos so severely.

Absolutely no one would buy it that neither one of them noticed the similarities. And absolutely no one bought that ‘Phantom stole Fenton’s face’ thing his parents once tried to spin. So Danny trying to play the similarities off wasn’t going to work.

…

Well he could simply do the aggressively opposite thing. Have Fenton and Phantom near each other constantly and clearly aware of the similarities for some reason. Just what kind of reason should he come up with? Claiming twins would get disproven in a heart beat, especially because everyone would wonder why he waited fourteen fucking years to reveal that shit. He… could, maybe, spin some soul mates bullshit. Ghosts were weird and did weird things and worked in weird ways, people would buy them having legit soul mates and being weird as fuck about it.

He should work shop this a little.

Really sell it.

Fuck.

Danny’s totally going to pretend to be his own fucking boyfriend at a random ass reunion that he still doesn’t know how he wound up getting invited to.

…

Oh Ancients Jack and Maddie were going to lose their minds when they heard about this. That’s it. He’s sold. He’s dating himself for a night. Fuck it. They put him through hell, he’s gonna put them through a little hell too.

Now how to explain it… ghost soul mates copy the appearance of their mate? Why though… hmmm… he doesn’t have a good one for that. Maybe… to recognise them while they’re still alive? Technically that could stab him in the ass if Fenton him ever died but well… unless something killed him then he wouldn’t die, semi-immortality was kinda a bitch like that. Old age was gonna bite him in the ass no matter what. And if he did get his sorry ass killed, finally rested in deaths grasp, his appearance would change to his ghost king form fully meaning that his ass actually would be covered by this dumbass excuse. Okay he is mentally swearing way too much and should absolutely go to bed at this point, sleep deprivation was absolutely taking the piss outta him right now.

He’s definitely sticking with this dumb dating himself idea though, it was just too good and too stupid.

Had Danny’s fully rested opinion changed from his sleep deprived one? not a chance. Eleven years ago this would have been utterly impossible to do, but now? he’s got duplication down pat, all his powers he was pretty solid with now. Not having friends gave him a crap ton of free time. Again, positive sides to negative things.

Heck he doesn’t even know what Sam and Tuck- Tucker were up to these days, it’s better left that way too. He’d be too tempted to keep checking up on them if he looked into it, and he gave that up the day he died and decided to keep that to himself no matter what. That no matter what had become losing his friends, his family, his sleep schedule, his unmarred body, his childhood home, his dream job, his grades, everything he used to care about except the stars. The stars he could be closer to than every living being, so he made that enough for him, it had to be.

Because he couldn’t follow his former friends, he couldn’t follow his former parents, he couldn’t follow his sister, he couldn’t follow his former teachers, he couldn’t follow his dreams. He refused to take all of that down with him, because the only one or thing Danny Fenton followed was Danny Phantom, because all Danny Phantom followed was Danny Fenton. Guess ‘dating’ was just taking it to another step, an absurd one but absurd was his half-life already so it was okay.

… Better thing to wonder about was what the heck to wear? He could slap his Phantom self in some of his more humanly normal royal wear but Fenton him? He owned one suit and it was shit. Most of his clothes were shit, he never actually paid for them so most were either destroyed or cheap enough that he didn’t feel too bad about the act of theft. His morals were another thing he gave up following, at least following it to a tee anyways. Eh fuck it, he’ll ‘barrow’ some of ‘Phantom’s’ royal wear. He’s not wasting time, money, or further morals, on trying to get something decent in a human way.

When was this happening again?

…

Tomorrow. Of course. It was fucking tomorrow. Figures that it would take a while to mail shit to a ghost and figures that they’d be lazy about sending ‘freaky Fenton’ an invite. Ugh. Whatever, he doesn’t really have energy to waste on caring or being bothered. Screw them too. He’ll be late purely to repay the audacity. That way he’ll also have to deal with everyone less, all the ‘normal’ people. Which if Tucker or Sam showed would probably be for the best, he doubts they’d approach him but it’d be painful to see them regardless. Not being in school anymore made it easy to fall out of being used to ignoring and avoiding them.

Though to be fair, he’d been out of school longer than everyone else, since he dropped out as soon as he legally could. Turning seventeen had be such a massive turning point for him, he’d been building up to dropping out and the teachers all knew it. None of them expected anything from him, Lancer held out hope longer than most but not even that man could hold out hope for a lost cause for long. Jack and Maddie thought he was joking till the day he actually dropped out though, they kicked him out of course which he expected; he didn’t even bother taking anything since nothing that was still there held any value to him.

Over time they had destroyed, one way or another, every physical thing he did care about. So he stopped bringing new things he would care about, it was a waste and only stood to hurt him in the long run. Them taking apart his telescope he spent years saving for just to make some stupid new invention was the nail in that particular coffin. So he left them everything he’d ever had but some clothes, that were barely wearable but he couldn’t exactly walk around naked. He’d been tempted to purely to make a point that everything in that house was worthless to him, them included, even if that used to be a lie.

Now he had some decent stuff, his mattress had a bed frame with stars scratched into the wood. That was something. Yeah…

…Yeah

He does have some food in the fridge right? Shit he should totally raid the free food at the reunion thing, the local town hero needed it more than they all did really. He’s seriously hoping that they have those yummy cheese tart things, those were delicious.

Fenton stretches out, eyeing his Phantom duplicate, it was so much harder to make a human duplicate than a ghost one so the choice of which one to make ‘real’ was fairly obvious. Snickering as Phantom chucks some clothes right at Fenton’s face, this kind of crap always amused him, being a goofy jerk to himself by himself. Fenton shaking his head, “dumbass”.

“You know talking to yourself isn’t supposed to be healthy”.

“As if we’re remotely close to healthy anything”.

Either way Fenton pulls the dark green knit tank top on, it looked acceptable over the black poets blouse, and the puffy blouse sleeves worked with the baggy harem pants. The shiny dress shoes stuck out bit so he’s swapping that shit out to soft weathered leather boots. Phantom’s already dressed in something more form fitting, like he always wore in that form, straight cut pants he’s sure are from the early nineteen hundreds and a borderline military tight collared and fully buttoned up jacket. Phantom sticking with the white boots and black gloves, there really wasn’t a reason to change that and he wasn’t a fan of people seeing the scarring on his left hand/arm.

Both of the hims absolutely rock the evil eyeliner though, because of course.

Fenton straightening the random bullet necklace he threw on, “so, ready to go babe”; fuck this was gonna be hilarious.

Phantom finger gunning right back, “tots babe”.

Oh here’s hoping he can hold his laughter and mocking smirks inside his mind. Everyone even in this spooky town could be so dumb though that they might not even notice even if he didn’t manage to keep himselves together. Plus he was ‘the freak’ and ‘crazy’ so he probably would get written off anyways. Fenton gesturing out the door as he opens it and begins to walk out. Phantom chuckling, “naw, I’ll fly us”; and having Fenton pretend to be startled when he gets picked up by his ‘romantic partner’. Man he’s going to make himself laugh at this point.

It doesn’t take long to get to Elmerton, at least the ‘A-listers’ had the sense to not try and hold a reunion inside Amity Park, especially when a lot of the people who were likely invited had made a point to get the hell out of dodge once they could. Amity was kinda a nightmare so Danny couldn’t blame them, even if it felt a little insulting. He thought he was doing a damn good job of keeping everyone safe! Sure there was lots of damages but no one ever got seriously injured. Living in a so called normal town just sounded boring to him these days, what did all those people even do with their time? Sleep? Eat? Did people still go to the movies these days or was that outdated? Whatever. Not his life style not his problem.

Phantom zipping up to open the door, Fenton stuffing his hands in his pockets and following along. Fenton had the loner lazy weirdo image to maintain after all. And there’s Star immediately, honestly he kind of expected either Dash or Paulina or maybe they were just ‘too good’ to greet people at the doors.

Star opens her mouth and nothing comes out, her just staring at the two hims. Yup. She noticed the freakish similarities immediately. She swallows very awkwardly and her smile is pinched, “Phantom! Danny! Glad you could make it!”. That rang about as true as a fucking potato trying to pass as a turtle. What the fuck. Did they just not expect either of hims to show up? Why even invite him then!

Phantom tilting his head, “well I was invited, someone went through a kinda weird amount of effort to do that”. Fenton scoffing, “and I can absolutely just leave if I’m not actually welcome, don’t know why y’all went to the effort to track me down if you didn’t want me here though”.

She waves them both off, “no no no! You’re both fine!”, and fiddled with all the little name plates, “it’s…”, side-eyeing Phantom’s glowing self, “just been a while since I’ve been around a ghost and wearing a bullet to see a bunch of people you haven’t seen in over a decade seems a little concerning”.

Fenton blinks, is she trying to say it came off as a threat? “If I was going to threaten people I’d do it to their face and if I was going to shoot people I’d have walked in with a gun”.

“That’s… not comforting”, she looks Fenton up and down, “you’re not armed right”.

“No!”; oh my zone just how bad was everyone’s opinions of Fenton? Ugh. Phantom gestures at his face, “I’m kinda always armed? I can’t do anything about that”.

She actually chuckles at that, handing them their name plates, “still a joker I see”.

“Death can’t kill these puns”.

Fenton snickering, “hopefully it can still off me though”. Phantom laughing lightly back, “you’re not a walking sentient pun, otherwise I feel very misled”; and makes a point to ruffle Fenton’s hair and have Fenton grin a little fondly at the action.

It was actually kinda nice to feel his hair being ruffled up again though…

Star, finally, gets the vibes he’s putting out. Vibes squared that he’s putting out. Doubly putting out. Her eyes widening, “oh my god are you two dating? Since when and how even!”.

Danny’s a little miffed she didn’t even comment on how similar the two hims look though. Like come on! If this whole thing was pointless he’s going to be annoyed enough to try setting something on fire. Nothing like arson to really scratch that destructive itch.

Fenton quirks an eyebrow, “I mean, yeah?”, sharing a glance with Phantom before looking back to her, “and pretty much ever since I dropped out, folks kicked me to the curb and this idiot showed up”.

“I’m the smart one in this relationship”.

“I don’t know about that, you dipshit”,

“Hey!”.

Oh okay, so that’s why everyone liked calling him insulting names. It was legit hilarious and weirdly satisfying… hopefully he doesn’t come out of tonight with a weird degradation kink, that would be his luck and very concerning. Would confuse a lot of ghosts though.

Star shakes her head with a more genuine grin, “I think I’m glad then, feel free to head on in. There’s food and drinks to the left”. Sweet, free food. “No invisibly stealing most of it, Phantom”. Aw. Damn. He’s still going to just… with more subtlety.

Phantom smirking, “so steal all the food, gotcha”, and winks before they’re fully inside.

It’s loud, not club loud but noisy. A second duplicate absolutely raids the table, just taking only a few things and at random. Not the toasted sandwiches though, ew. Hard pass.

Lily spots them first, nearly running over, he can tell by scent alone that she’s got kids now. Weird. “Holy crap, Danny? Phantom? Did you guys just arrive by chance together or do you- holy what the?”, she stops a bit away from them and tilts her head, “did you two always look this similar?”, and shakes herself off before coming all the way over to the two hims. “So both of you still in Amity I guess? Phantom obviously but you seriously didn’t leave Danny? With how crap your parents were to you?”.

Wow. Way to be gentle about it, damn. Fenton quirks a judgmental eyebrow, “harsh much, but Amity’s big enough that we avoid each other pretty easily. They leave my precious Nasty Burger and coffee shops alone, I stay the hell away from FentonWorks. It works”. Phantom nodding readily, “plus I would be very sad if he went and left”, and makes a point to pout goofily.

Lily hums and nods, “oh yeah I guess since most of us left, you’d miss anymore leaving huh?”.

Dense much. Fucking Zone.

Fenton and Phantom exchanging looks before staring at her. Phantom giving her that smirk that meant he was about to say something stupid, Danny loved making that smirk, “no, I’d miss sucking his face off”.

Lily squawks, scandalised, “you don’t just say stuff like that! And you’re dating!”, tilting her head, “you guys have the same name and could pass as twins, that is so weird”.

“WHAT! Oh mi god!”.

Ah that sounded like Paulina. This ought to be fun.

Paulina almost knocks Lily over and physically flings her arms around Phantom’s neck. Danny can’t resist but have Phantom give Fenton an awkward apologetic look; just to make Lily uncomfortable. That absolutely works and she shuffles on her feet and taps Paulina’s should in an attempt to get her to stop.

“I can’t believe you actually came! Oh this is the best! And you’re still so muscley! And you smell like lime still!”.

He… forgot how creepy she could be, actually. Wow. He’s nipping this in the ass. Fenton putting a hand on his hip, “you done dangling off my ghost, Paulina”; he makes sure that comes off as chastising instead of actually questioning.

Paulina doesn’t get off of Phantom and instead just turns her head to look at Fenton, “and you are? What could you possibly mean by that?”.

Holy shit. By all the Ancients. She doesn’t even recognise Fenton him. What the fuck actually. For someone who was, and clearly still is, so obsessed with a version of him she clearly couldn’t be bothered to remember him. Phantom prying Paulina’s arms off him with an almost baffled raised eyebrow, “Danny Fenton? You know? The kid you guys used to call freaky all the time? My soulmate?”.

“Your what?”. Of course the last bit is the part she really cares about. She stares at Fenton, who glares, her looking back to Phantom, “I refuse to believe that”.

You know what? Fuck it. Time to absolutely horrify everyone and do something arguable really weird. Fenton grabs a fist full of Phantoms hair and kisses him like he fucking means it. Even though all he really means is that he desires to disturb Paulina and see if he can make her throw up on command.

She doesn’t throw up, sadly. She does start waving her hands around and backing away disgustedly though; an almost win. “Oh god ew! I don’t want to see that loser kissing anyone! Especially not Phantom”. Well too bad Paulina, you’re seeing it. Lily is busy clutching her pearls and shuffling away from them like they’re physically toxic to be around; which with him being literally a ghost in one of his forms that was actually an accurate statement.

Fenton does break off the kiss though, “oh so you do remember me?”. She scowls at Fenton him so he has Phantom whole ass bite Fenton’s neck with his fangs like a proper possessive asshole ghost would. Her scowl deepens and he feels very satisfied with himselves.

She backs up a bit, “unfortunately. Now at least. I would have preferred not to have the reminder”, looking to Phantom almost hopefully, “are you sure? Serious?”.

Phantom keeps a hand around Fenton’s waist, “course! It’s pretty obvious he’s supposed to be mine so”. Fenton sticks his tongue out meanly while Phantom shrugs like all of this is a given.

“No it’s really not”.

“Holy shit Phantom!”.

“Wait really!?”.

“Phantom!”.

“Wow you’ve changed! Awesome man!”.

“He came!”.

“I forgot how freaky ghosts looked”.

“HI!”.

Fenton gets pretty much shoved to the side as Phantom gets mobbed. Ahh yeah Danny did not miss all the fangirls and fanboys shit. He really didn’t. That was one thing about being a hero he could seriously do without. It was at the least uncomfortable and at the worst actively dangerous for everyone involved. Fenton huffing and shaking his arms out, going through the motions of running his bite mark and grumbling about people hogging ‘his boyfriend’. Fuck it, Fenton him is hitting up the food table and grabbing both hims a drink. The duplicate can deal with all the damn fans and freak outs.

Phantom chuckles awkwardly when Dash smacks him a few times in the arm, “solid and tough as always I see! Man it still sucks that ghosts couldn’t be on the team!”.

“And I’ll point out that would have still been unfair”; like really, Danny, especially as Phantom, could pick up the entire school building. He could kick a football into the goddamn stratosphere.

Dash smacks him again, “oh who cares”.

“I do? And did?”. Danny liked to pretend he still had good solid morals sometimes.

James starts aggressively shaking Phantom’s hand, “man it’s been too long, wow i thought I’d been misremembering that your skin, or suit I suppose, tingled!”. Phantom only laughing awkwardly in response.

“You still doing the whole super hero thing?”.

“it’s almost weird to see you all grown up?”.

“You know you practically were part of our class!”.

“Could you imagine if he still looked like a kid?”.

“Amity’s ghost issues as bad as ever!”.

“Think I could get a signature for the kids?”.

“The Fenton’s still trying to catch you?”.

Okay this was a bit much, like it always was. Most of Amity didn’t do this crap now, everyone used to him just kinda always being around. Everyone here though? Again most of them left Amity, meaning he was now a novelty to them. Phantom him was at least.

Danny’s putting a stop to this, “Hey spooky butt”, Fenton leans his face and one drink over Phantom’s shoulder in a way that could only be described as shit-eatingly sultry.

“Holy shit Danny!”.

“Looks like someone finally learned how to dress”.

“Why are you getting Phantom a drink?”.

Paulina crosses her arms and huffs, “apparently they’re dating”, waving a hand around dismissively, “soul mates or whatever”.

OoOooIooOoooOoOooh someone’s jealous. Ha! He loves to see it. Suck on that, little miss stalker.

Everyone just kind of goes silent, zone someone actually goes and shuts off the music even. Wow. His both touched and slightly horrified. Phantom takes the drink from Fenton and sips noisily at it while everyone stares; Fenton just smirking his ass off and Danny trying not to have either hims collapse to the floor in laughing fits.

Todd snapping, “what the hell does that mean”, then scowling, “wait, why do I even care?”, and stalks off to aggressively grab a rice crispy square. That starts the shouting though.

“What?!”.

“What does she mean dating!?!”.

“There’s NO WAY THAT’S SERIOUS!”.

“How!”.

“Woah woah woah huh?!?”.

“WHAT!”.

“The hell happened!”.

“How does this even make sense!”.

Paulina looks pleased with herself actually, smirking at Fenton like this somehow proved something? Danny’s completely lost on what she thinks she’s won. Like, Danny’s winning here, mass confusion was practically ninety percent of the goal. He wanted to piss off, freak out, and annoy these people. Most of them had treated him like shit, the others didn’t care, and well, two were… okay but he was best leaving them confused too. At least he doesn’t see either of them yet.

Dash near shrieking, “Fenton!”. Danny’s suddenly distinctly remembering that this guy used to slam him into walls and try to drown him. Fenton ducking down under Phantom's arm to be able to slip under it to move in front of his ghost self, “what do you want, Dash? Feel like revisiting shoving my head in toilets?”. He makes a point to have Phantom watch the interaction like a very obviously protective hawk; protective eyes for Fenton only. He is legit enjoying seeing Fenton him standing up against Dash though, especially since Fenton was taller than Dash now and more bulked up.

Someone fell off with all their working out. Ha! As if that would ever happen with Danny, he’s mere existence was a work out.

Dash glaring up at Fenton, sneering, “Fenton, still being weird I see”.

“Let me guess, I was invited to be the freak show you lot would point at and use as a way to make yourselves feel better about how your own lives turned out? What? Upset that you were right about peeking in Highschool?”.

Dash actually clenches a fist, Danny keeps Fenton glaring straight at his face, and makes Phantom’s eyes glow dangerously in warning. Dash wilts immediately, scoffing, “gotta have a ghost fight your battles for you, Fenton. Whatever”.

Fenton cackles meanly, wandering off to pick up one of the full coolers up over his head with ease and shout, “you wanna go bitch?!? You think I’m hooked up with a combative mother fucker without getting a few hits in myself!”. Yes, fear human him even slightly, please him.

Then Star stomps over, “Danny put that down”, pointing at Dash, “Dash, this isn’t Highschool anymore, grow up”, then looking at Phantom, “please discourage this?”.

Phantom blinks innocently, “why would I? It’s hot when throws shit at people, he threw Johnny’s bike two days ago, ten outta ten”.

That gets him a lot of ‘what’s’ and Paulina recoils, “you, called Fenton hot”.

Phantom shrugging like this is obvious, “well he is”. Note, Danny is fully aware that he is absolutely not hot or conventionally attractive in anyway. He just wants to see her grossed out. The disgusted look is so worth it, worth all this crap.

Kwan shakes his head, but when he smiles at both Danny’s his smile is genuine, “well good for you two then!”. Dash glances away awkwardly, Danny’s guessing those two had a falling out. Figures, Kwan was always a kinda decent dude that was just surrounded by assholes. Kwan coming over and smacking both of the Danny’s shoulders, “how’d this happen though?”.

Multiple people raise their hands, clearly wanting an expilnation for this shit too; zone the music is still off. Danny knows he’s a hot topic, as Phantom at least, but for fucks sake! Phantom and Fenton exchanging glances before Fenton crosses his arms at the group, “after I got the familial boot, this shit ass”, jabbing a thumb back at Phantom. Phantom muttering, “yes insult me harder, daddy”, purely because that was absolutely taking this a step too far. Making Fenton pause and look back at ghost him, “I can’t believe you actually said that”, then turning back to everyone, most of whom look varying degrees of freaked out, “so this shit ass, helped me get back on my feet and not be contentedly homeless and you know, when a hero type starts stealing things for you you start to question that shit. And well, romance bloomed”. There are some ‘aw’s’ and some gags and some eye rolls. Expected, many here had once had crushes on Phantom him and also viewed Fenton him as a loser; most wouldn’t be happy about this pairing not that he cares.

Phantom waving at everyone with a big smile specifically to get their attention, “we’re soul mates!”, humming, “which is a ghost thing so it’s probably really weird to the living”.

Fenton nodding, okay self… selves, time to sell this shit. Fenton pointing at his face then Phantom’s face, “it’s why we look alike”. Phantom nodding immediately, “looking like our loves makes them easier to find”.

Jesse blinks, he was dressed in an actually starched suit, “so ghosts just copy their partners appearance until they find them as ghosts? Until they die? That seems a bit insane and like it would mess with your sense of self”.

Paulina stares at the ground, “so I’ve been crushing on a Fenton look-alike, ew”. Oh Danny hadn’t even thought of that reaction! Ha! Suffer for his amusement. This was a great plan.

Fenton smirks to himself, “yup. Too bad you missed out on the real thing huh?”. She scowls deeply at him and stalks off, apparently done with his bullshit; the quick glance she gives Phantom is a little odd but maybe this will finally kill her odd obsession with half of him.

Phantom hums, shaking his head in that way that makes his hair flop around detached from gravity, “oh I can look how I’m supposed to look fully if I want to”, leaning over and pinching Fenton’s cheek, “looking like this silly little human, in general body shape, is just more tolerable around all you humans”; then running the same hand through his hair, changing it to white flames as he does so. Danny lets the fire hair ‘hang out’ on and around Phantom’s head for a bit before settling back to his standard hair.

Dash grumbling, “I’d rather look like some beast than a loser. Fire hair is cool anyways”.

Brittney sticking up a finger, “but with this, then wouldn’t you have known since you first met? When you first showed up in Amity? So why didn’t you date back in Highschool?”.

Phantom quirks an eyebrow at her like the answers obvious, because frankly it is, “He’s alive? I wasn’t about to mess his life up, then suddenly he wasn’t in school or at his home. He was alone with no real human responsibilities so I decided why not? And I could hardly do nothing when my mate could use some help”. Dating any ghost, especially himself, would have gone horrifically bad while he was still living with Maddie and Jack. The amount those two would have tried to use him and this fabricated soul mate bond thing would have been absolutely insane and very very painful eventually. Even if he had dated a blob ghost that would have ended in the ghostly ultimate destruction. Even now dating a ghost came with far too much risk to them, dating himself he could get away with since he was a very powerful ghost and also knew exactly what he was getting himself into more or less. Besides, if dating himself is what gets his ass finally truly hurt by those two he will laugh.

Star grins at the ghost, “that is very adorable”, then looking at the mass of people, “okay that’s enough mobbing them, this is to mingle with everyone not just ogle Phantom”. Oh hey, look at the old queen bee lackey being the voice of reason now, talk about moving up in the world.

A couple people grumble but things do go back to somewhat normal, the music comes back on too. Nice. Star nodding curtly to herself, then to Fenton, “now I didn’t ask this earlier but are the Fenton’s going to show up? They weren’t invited but they were never big on following rules”.

Both Danny’s chuckle at that, Fenton shaking his head, “so long as no one tells them a ghost’s here, then no”.

“Glad to hear it, now I’m going back to greet people, I imagine there will be a couple more late arrivals”. Fenton smirks meanly at that while Phantom tries to look slightly apologetic, ultimately Danny didn’t really care and they should be glad he bothered showing up to an event full of people that either ignored his existence or treated him like shit except when he was saving their hides or floating around as Phantom.

Phantom finally gets to sip his, unfortunately ectoplasm free, drink and take some food from Fenton. Danny’s tempted to have Fenton fucking hand feed Phantom just to mess with people. The tarts are sadly really bland, is this what ‘normal’ grown ups liked to eat? Hard pass. But people’s tastes seriously get this boring? How sad and a bit pathetic. Live a little! Enjoy some flavour!

Kwan elbowing Phantom, “so the ghost problem still going strong”, laughing almost awkwardly, “I haven’t exactly been keeping up, the tech industry is a hard core one!”.

Ah so he worked in tech now? He’d expected English, a teacher maybe, he seemed to like poetry if Danny’s remembering right? Phantom chuckles, “of course! I doubt that’ll ever change. Serious damage doesn’t happen too much now though, since I’m pretty solid on what kind of damage is serious damage in the living world now”. Fenton nodding, “and I get the fun of patching his dumbass up when he lets himself get hit for a pun”.

“As if you don’t do the same”.

Fenton snorts, making a point to seem amused by Phantom’s antics. Phantom smirking playfully before looking back to Kwan, “besides, no ghost these days would want to actually get on my bad side with my position, you know?”. Jack and Maddie might very loudly and very aggressively deny that ghosts could possibly have a political system but everyone else seemed to accept it at least. Besides, those two hunters being loud about anything didn’t somehow make it true, even if the town believing the whole ‘ghost king’ thing made some of them a lot more leery of Phantom. Like he’d execute them or try them for dissent or something if ‘his human people’ went against him. Some folks moved out purely because they didn’t want to be in a town under ‘some ghost royals rule’, even though Danny had firmly established his Phantom self as the good guy by now. Humans could be so annoying. None of the ghosts got pissy about being under his domain and they were more under it than any human in Amity.

Kwan looks… confused? “No I don’t think I know? Are you, like, an actual ghost cop now? Man that would be so cool”.

What. Hmm. Well. Maybe most of these people don’t know? Most of his old ‘citizens’ hadn’t been citizens for a while before Danny took the throne proper and him doing so got leaked, thank you very much Vlad. Asshole. Though having very public arguments with the Observants in the mild of the fucking sky probably didn’t help, or him actually having to go scary ghost king on that one Ancient that tried poisoning the water supply with corpses. If you’re gonna mass kill people be a proper ghost and do it with your own bare hands. Danny makes a point to have Phantom look to Fenton in confusion, Fenton facepalming, “right. Most of y’all have been gone a while”, moving his hand off his face and giving Kwan a mean smirk, “Phantom’s been the current ghost king ever since he became an adult ghost”, waving a hand around dismissively, “its been, what? eight years?”.

Phantom nodding, “and my town’s, Amity’s, known for five because Plasmius is a jerk and the Observants won’t stop hassling me”, grumbling, “one of these days I swear I’m gonna start shooting them with suction darts”.

Fenton barking a laugh as if he wasn’t fully aware of what his other self was going to say, “if that works I will mock them relentlessly”.

“Please do, anyone who doesn’t give up on political assassination attempts after the third failure deserves to be mocked”.

At this point it was like they felt obligated to try at least once per year, it was very annoying and a waste of his time. At least all the other ghosts who started beef with him provided some entertainment and stretched his muscles out, let him satisfy that pesky little protective obsession of his. The eyeballs were just jerks. At least he had fun setting the last wannabe assassin on fire. Ha.

Kwan blinks before smacking Phantom’s arm hard, “wow! Congrats then! I’m busy enough just being a desk boy usually! Being a king would be awful, no offence”, then smacking Fenton’s arm one, “and congrats on bagging royalty!”.

Todd scowling from a little bit away, “fuck, right, I forgot that asshole got that throne thing, ugh I hate this town”, and wanders off further away from Danny’s hims and their everything.

But someone’s turned off the music, again ugh, it’s Lindsey by the controls and she’s gapping at the hims, “what do you mean Phantom’s royalty!”.

Oh. This shit again.

Everyone starts yelling at the hims again.

“What!?”.

“Oh that’s awesome!”.

“For defeating that dude that abducted the town right?!?”.

“For how long!”.

“That’s absurd!”.

“I could have dated a king!”.

“We sorta went to school with royalty!”.

“Oh my god!”.

“WHAT!”.

“Why are there still ghosts then!”.

“Does that make Amity, like, a royal capital!”.

Phantom buries his face in his palms, groaning loudly. Man Danny remembers going through this back when Vlad leaked everything and the towns folk realised he wasn’t joking. So many questions, an entire press conference even. Fenton crossing his arms and scowling, “there’s an entire press release on it, google it your self, hell go track it down on TikTok I don’t care”.

Phantom sighing again and removing his hand from his face, looking at the people in his line of sight, “yes it’s the throne the guy who abducted the town had. It’s only been eight years and the towns know for five. No I’m not going to mass control the ghosts to stay out of Amity, freedom is a big deal to ghosts. Amity is technically a royal capital but it’s not in the Infinite Realm so that doesn’t actually mean much. And yes it is absurd”, gesturing a hand at his head and making the green flaming crown appear for a few seconds before sending it away again.

Fenton pretty much gets shoved away from Phantom again as everyone pretty much mobs the ghost, Kwan patting an annoyed Fenton’s shoulder, “so what have you been doing? Outside of apparently dealing with Phantom’s craziness all the time”.

(Phantom holds up his hands, “alright alright, just stop shoving my mate around. Geez”. Only a couple of people apologise)

Fenton huffs, at least the man sounded genuine, after all most people didn’t expect Danny Fenton to amount to much of anything. Homeless and jobless was the expectation. It was also almost accurate, if he wasn’t Phantom at least. The only reason he had an apartment at all was because he was better at making weapons than his parents were, even if he sold his more or less illegally. The G.I.W. would never approve someone who was ‘in league with the dead’ to deal ghost tech in any form, even if they did, Jack and Maddie would try to keep him out. At least Vlad pulled his weight by letting Danny sell the more important stuff under the Dalvco brand, like shields and ghost-plant killer that secretly doubled as a Blood Blossom spray. His general weapons were blackmarket only though, fuck the government. “If I told you I’d have to kill you”. Kwan rolls his eyes and Fenton snorts after a beat, “I sell weapons on the blackmarket”.

… It takes a bit but, Kwan blinks, “oh you’re serious”.

(Phantom chuckles awkwardly, “yes I’m a lot stronger now than I was back then, I don’t flaunt that though”.)

Fenton shrugging, “it’s ghost weapons, dude. More ghost friendly, Phantom friendly, and more effective than what FentonWorks or Dalvco produce. And not legislated to the zone and back like G.I.W. tech, plus fuck those guys, no Amity Parker current or past would buy shit from those assholes”.

“Yeah I absolutely remember them shooting live rockets at little kids that one time”, Kwan shakes his head, “I guess that makes sense, can’t do it legally because of being publicly pro-ghost?”.

(Danny internally sighs as most of the group shove pens and paper and whatnot at Phantom, ugh).

“Got it in one, got it in one. It doesn’t make good money but it does make some. Enough for a place to live and cheap food, I’m not moving into the gz regardless of someone’s insistence on how cozy it is”.

Kwan actually takes that comment in stride, good for him, “I mean, you’re gonna be there one day anyways? So why rush it? Even if Phantom would probably prefer you there sooner than later”, the guy scratches his head, “man that must be weird. Being a ghosts soul mate or whatever. Chelsea marrying that old guy was weird enough, a dead guy is on another level”.

Chelsea married a sugar daddy? Really? Okay… Get that bread he guesses. Fenton snorting, “if she’s making bank and living the rich life because of that then good for her”, shrugging, “and outside of him running of to throw fists and laying on the ceiling, it’s not much different from dating a human. Getting bitched at about royal shit is way more weird”, looking down at himself and sticking his arms away from his torso some, “the clothing’s nice though”.

“That’s ghost clothing?”.

Fenton smirks, “yup. This shirt is probably older than our parents. And I think the boots are made from Minotaur hide”. He doesn’t think, he knows they are. Ghost clothing was badass like that.

(Phantom rolls his eyes at Jasper, “no I’m not going to just make people my knights when they die”.)

James pops his head over, “that would freak me out to wear, damn aren’t you worried about ecto-contamination and shit? I’d prefer to stick to stuff made by human hands, cool though”.

Was it weird? He didn’t think so. “There’s so little ecto on it that it really doesn’t matter, besides if clothing was bad for my health Phantom would kill me via cuddles”. Kwan bursts out laughing, and nods repeatedly.

James nods a little, “oh yeah! I guess that would be right huh?”.

The Danny makes a point to have Fenton jerk a little from Phantom just kinda appearing right next to Fenton. Kwan putting a hand to his chest and James yelping a little. Fenton glancing at Phantom, “got bored of being mobbed or doing signatures?”. Ancients everyone wanted signatures and if Phantom wasn’t the duplicate Danny’s sure his hand would be sore for at least ten minutes. Ugh. signing shit for Craig’s goddamn six children was wild though, his poor wife. Phantom pouting, “yes”.

“I did warn you that would happen”.

“I wasn’t going to not show up, that would be rude!”.

At least the music turns back on, thank everything. Dale spotting and hearing where Phantom disappeared to and popping over, “everyone’s glad you came, even if being around a ghost again is a little off putting and weird”.

Phantom rubs his neck, “me being more powerful probably doesn’t help”. Fenton shoving him a little good naturedly.

Dale acts like Phantom didn’t even say anything, “and yeah Fenton was kinda invited in hopes you’d be more likely to show, since both of you were seen near each other a lot”.

Kwan gives the other man a disappointed look, “dude”. Making Dale blink, “oh right yeah that was mean”, and just stares off blankly a little.

Wow. Fucking figured but damn. Jerks. Though right, wasn’t Dale the guy that had some brain damage? Eh, Danny shouldn’t be too mean to the guy. Still making Fenton scowl though, “why am I not surprised, it’s not like I was ever close with any of you shitheads”. James wanders away very quickly at that, and at Phantom growling a little. Kwan scratching his head, “sorry about that, Dale’s not the best at brain to mouth censoring”. Dale blinking and still looking a little far off but nodding, “ah, yeah no I’m not. Eh? At least dogs don’t care about that”.

Phantom brightening up immediately, “oh yeah! Cujo can be a handful but he’s a good boy”.

Dale blinks again, “I don’t think I could handle a ghost dog, all dogs are great dogs though”.

See that? Danny could agree with. Cujo might cause a lot of damage and might drag him around by his ankles but he was still just the best. And getting to have interactions with someone or something that had no expectations of him and couldn’t be disappointed by him was nice. All the pup wanted was a playmate, belly rubs, and to guard his master; nothing more nothing less. Cujo didn’t care if Danny was a king or if he was on bad terms with his biological makers or if he was a little out of touch with other beings or if he technically was an entity that should be impossible to exist in the first place. Dogs were nice like that, unlike people. So both Danny’s nod.

Then, as if summoned by the dog that ‘ruined’ her life, Val shows up. The good ol’ Red Huntress. At least they got along somewhat these days, her and Phantom at least.

Her voice is harsh, “what the fuck”. Ah so she spotted Phantom. This was gonna be fun and possibly annoying or stupid or a lot of things. She stomps over, glaring bloody murder at Phantom who whistles and glances around like an innocent little angel. Man Danny loved to rile her up sometimes, and she couldn’t even shoot him this time! She grabs Fenton’s baggy sleeve roughly and physically drags him off. Leaving a blinking Phantom, “well at least this time it’s him being pestered and not the ghost with the most”. Kwan laughs.

Fenton blinks at Val, “sup, Val. Why are you dragging me around?”. As if he doesn’t know exactly why. Phantom was here and she wanted to know why, the Red Huntress did talk to Fenton him sometimes, since he made ghost shit and everything. Plus the ‘Fenton’ knowledge he had from Jack and Maddie. Danny’s ninety percent sure she suspects him of knowing exactly who was under the helmet, She drags him all the way over to the food tables before responding to him, “I’ve been here all of ten minutes and all I am hearing about, besides people telling me what their jobs are now and Ali trying to get me to join her pyramid scheme, is that you are apparently dating Phantom. What the actual fresh fuck, Danny”.

Fenton huffs, “let me have my love life, gosh”, smirking, “what? Do you have a problem with gay couples?”; that’s not the issue and he knows it and she knows that he knows it.

She swats him over the head immediately, “he’s a ghost you dumbass”, huffing, “I know you tend to side with ghosts but dating Phantom? Really?”, rubbing her temples, “like yes, if you’re going to have a thing for the dead then Phantom’s acceptable but what are you two doing?”.

Fenton smirks, “what we’re doing is being little shits and cuddle buddies”.

“You know what I mean, you shit”.

Fenton chuckles, “and I couldn’t make this anymore clear, I could described what Phantom’s mouth tastes like if you’d like?”; of course Danny could actually have Fenton do that since Danny knew what his own mouth tasted like.

Val glares, crosses her arms, and looks from Fenton to Phantom, from one Danny to the other… then she does it again. There it was, the recognition. “What the?”.

Lily walks over to grab some food, “oh yeah let me guess, noticed the similarities? Apparently they’re soul mates”, eyeing Fenton, “ghosts am I right?”. Danny can tell instantly that Val doesn’t buy that shit, like at all. Figures, she was a ghost hunter after all… and she knew about Vlad’s sorry half-dead ass. AND she’s seen Elle’s human half which was basically just a female version of Fenton him.

Fenton smirks at Lily, “they’re weird, but exactly my kind of weird”, and fucking winks at her. Lily shaking her head and heading back over to a bunch of the other ex-cheerleader girls.

Val looks to Fenton slowly, “Danny? Are you? Are you him?”.

Fenton finger guns, “with him you mean, ha!”, then dropping his hands and shrugging, “it shouldn’t have taken you this long, Red. Like my excuse? All the reactions have been to die for”. She smacks him over the head again, expected, she always did love to rough up his sorry ass. “You know Phantom’s not gonna like if you bruise me up too much”.

“I hate you”.

“No you don’t”.

“Fuck you”.

“You wish you could”.

She throws her hands up dramatically, “I can’t with you! Oh my Zone!”, dropping her hands and glaring at Fenton, “you could have just fucking told me, you know”.

Fenton shrugging, stealing up a little rainbow rice crispy square, “eh, it was better off I didn’t. I’m a lot to get involved in and it’s better that people just don’t”, pointing the square at her before taking a bite, “tough shit or not you still die if someone lops your head off”. Sometimes he did want to try and stop her from the whole huntress thing but who was he to tell someone to not do stupid dumb reckless shit? Plus all the ghosts actually liked her, and that shit counted for a lot.

She frowns at him, “that’s a bit depressing you know? Is that why you’re such a loner?”, shaking her head and glancing at a wall, “I guess I’m not really one to talk though, huh?”.

“No shit, Sherlock. We’re both pretty irredeemably fucked, I just have less of a choice about it”.

“You have a choice“.

“Look me in my half dead god king face and say that again”.

She flinches at that, fucking good, he didn’t have a whole lot of tolerance for people telling him he could just walk away. As if everything wouldn’t go to utter shit without his asses involvement. As if people wouldn’t die or wind up experimented on. As if his realm could function and maintain itself without its king. As if there was anything better for him to do other than rot in bed. As if this wasn’t all he was goddamn good for and all he knew how to do anymore. Everything else is gone and there ain’t no getting it back. He’s fucked. Absolutely, completely, and utterly, fucked. And saying otherwise was like pissing on all his fucking suffering and sacrifices. He was needed as Phantom, as a sovereign and protector. He was needed as Fenton, as the interspecies liaison and defender. And that was all he was needed as. Never anything more and never anything less. It wasn’t his choice to make anymore, even if it’s a choice he would make over and over again if it was up to him. Nothing was changing that till either every part of him collapsed or the universe did.

Fenton huffs, “come on, let’s mingle instead of wallowing in our mildly crappy existences”.

She stands firm, making him eye her, “you do like it though, right? I do”.

Even if he didn’t, even if he hated every second of it, he’d still say yes just so she wouldn’t pity him or try to carry more of the load on her very mortal shoulders. He did enjoy it though, so there’s that, meaning it’s not a lie when Fenton says, “duh. I’m a combative mother fucker, even if somehow no one noticed that trait in Fenton”. This time she lets him drag her off with him.

Phantom giving both of them smiles, “have fun catching up, babe?”. Fenton snickering, “of course babe”. Val glares murderously at both hims but doesn’t call him out on his bullshit.

Silver waving at Val, basically killing the conversation Silver’d been having with his duplicate about their greenhouses poppy flowers. It’s was weird someone being so interested in just… growing a bunch of poppy’s. Like fuck, way to show you have a real hunky-dory life. They actually teared up a little at successfully growing an orange one… Sliver speaking up, “you still stuck in Amity?”.

Val nodding easily, “yeah, what can I say, I like the stupid town. I doubt I’ll ever leave, it’s got me for life”.

Yeah… she was probably right about that. She was married to the game less than him but still was all the same. Her it was more that she didn’t want to stop and felt responsible, rather than genuinely not being able to stop.

Phantom putting his hands behind his head, “yeah, her and her dad run a pretty solid tech shop these days, I get my thermoses fixed there since the Fenton’s are still crazy”. Fenton snorting, “tell me about it”. Did Danny actually need to be doing that? Obviously not. But it was a chance to have Phantom talk with Red outside of combat, and to familiarise her with thermoses in case the worst happened.

After all, losing all his human connections is what made Dan and that’s exactly the way things were now. It was bound to happen if he ever lost his protective drive. Protection and combat are his only drives, one without the other is a problem for his mind. So he’d keep his one connection with Val, for as little as that might be worth in the end, and he’ll keep his protective streak going till it burns him to ash.

Val rolls her eyes at the two hims, “helping the town, even that little bit, is worth it”.

“I hear ya, I hear ya”.

“Hey Fenton! Does Jazz still live in Amity?!”.

Fenton blinks, leaning away from his little group going on and stares at Dash, “fucking no?! Why would she?! She literally left the day she turned eighteen how did you not notice that?!?”, scowling, “and no! I’m not calling her for you! We barely talk anymore anyways!”. Which kinda sucked but she got to live her normal human life that she very much enjoyed.

Dash blinks, “damn!”. Ugh.

Silver blinking at Fenton, “oh? It’s ’cause of the Fenton’s isn��t it?”.

Phantom sighs, rubbing his temples, “I took her away personally. The Fenton’s, aware that Danny wasn’t going to, and in their eyes shouldn’t, take over FentonWorks, burned her scholarships and tried to stop her from leaving. I got her out and a few towns over, saw her off and all that”.

Fenton nodding, “which I was very relieved over, that had been Hell a little bit-”. Silver cringes. “-she’s doing well for herself though, has her own therapist practice and all that. Doesn’t want anything to do with Maddie or Jack, same as me”, shrugging, “she also wants nothing to do with ghosts, so I’m kinda an at arms length sibling if you will”.

“Since you’re dating a ghosts and illegally selling ghost tech? Yeah I can get that”.

Fenton nodding, “ditto. And if she did show up back here I’d slap some sense into her and tell her to get lost before she regrets it”; ahh getting maybe a little bit too real there but oh well. Jazz was a Fenton, which meant that Amity was a place she had to stay the hell away from; Jack and Maddie she had to stay the hell away from. Hopefully she never forgets that.

Then Star pops back in, “alright that’s everyone who’s coming!”. Getting a bunch of raised glasses and food stuff in return. A dark-skinned man with dreads coming in behind her, or… rolling in behind her.

That was…

Tucker was in a wheelchair?!?! What happened! Half the damn point was those two not getting fucking hurt! Was there no point? Had it been a hopeless endeavour?

It takes a bit to avoid dissolving Phantom. As it is his ghost selves eyes flare up a little and his ecto-field wiggles concerningly. Val kicks Phantom in the boot, to stabilise him maybe? He doesn’t know and he doesn’t care. He needs to know what happened, how it happened, could he have done something different? Fenton absently muttering, “I’m going to go say hi”. Val giving him a bit of a supportive back pat that he barely notices, she physically blocks Phantom him from following with a whispered, “Tucker’s Danny Fenton’s old friend, not Phantom’s stay put you”.

Sliver nodding, “I guess it’s no surprise you’re an over protective boyfriend”.

Fenton blinking down at Tucker, “Tuck”. And the guy raises an eyebrow, “been a while since I’ve been called that”; making Fenton, and Phantom, wince. Star walks away quickly, easily picking up on the awkward and probably way to private atmosphere.

Fenton blinks again, “you’re in a wheelchair”.

“Yeah I noticed”, Tucker sighing when Danny doesn’t really have a response to that that wasn’t horrifically insensitive. Tucker putting his hands on his lap, “Danny, you kinda lost the right to ask a while ago, but since you’re concerned enough to talk to me properly for the first time in nearly fourteen years, it’s genetic. I have a type of muscular dystrophy. Now can I get past and grab some food or?”.

Again, both Danny’s wince, him realising that the Fenton one was practically blocking Tucker from getting his… wheelchair past. Fenton stepping to the side with a neck rub, “sorry about that”.

“Whatever, man”.

Danny just kind of stares as the man goes, it hurt a little. The dismissal. But he expected it and it was okay. At least… at least it was nothing he could have done anything about. If anything this means that Danny was right to push him away. Being involved with ghosts would have gotten him killed probably. But… getting diagnosed and eventually having to use mobility aids had probably been crushing to him… and Danny hadn’t been there to support him. Any ounce of support he tried to give now would just seem hollow and like pity. Former friend was the right label for them and he should just let the man go, shouldn’t follow after.

He does of course. Fenton him does. Because the wheelchair and subsequent mild protective freakout has thrown him off kilter. He can tell the man’s glaring at the food table, Fenton him can see it in the reflection of some of the glasses. “Danny I’m really not interested in ‘catching up’ with you”.

Fenton stares a little before Danny can remember himself and that humans find staring creepy. Shaking his head, “right yeah, that makes sense”. Maybe he’d have better luck and less hostility with Phantom him? “Can I ask what you do at least? Then I’ll get out of your hair. You don’t have to ask me shit, or you can, it’s whatever”.

Tucker actually smacks a fist on the table, “I know the only damn reason you’re even trying is because I’m disabled now, so fuck off”.

Shit. Okay. That wasn’t how he was trying to be interpreted. “Tuck-”.

“Don’t”.

Fenton snarls, properly snarling, startling his former friend, “just because we stopped being friends doesn’t mean I stopped giving a damn. But fine, fuck it, whatever”, and basically stomps off. He doesn’t turn around when Tucker mutters a possibly regretful, “shit”. If the man wants to be an ass then fine, let him be an ass by himself. It’s better Danny doesn’t care anyways, it’s better they end on bad terms. Fuck it and fuck him.

Val’s kicking Phantom him again, since Phantom had snarled too. Shit whatever. Fuck it if he’s freaking anyone out, they’re all assholes anyways. Val eyeing the ticked of Fenton, “your mood is rubbing off on someone”.

“I’m fully fucking aware, Val”.

She smacks him over the head, “well pull your shit together, you can’t expect him to want to be friendly with you after all this time”.

“Yeah well I didn’t expect to basically get told to go fuck myself either, jackass”.

Both Val and Silver frowning, Silver shaking their head, “okay yeah that’s a little rude, but he might be going through some stuff, you don’t know. You staring at the chair probably didn’t help”.

“My mind goes to worst case scenarios so excuse me if the thought of someone I used to be extremely close with getting into some kind of horrible accident was upsetting”.

Phantom huffing and crossing his arms, “being dead or surrounded by the dead tends to do that”. Now he wishes Tucker hadn’t shown up at all. He’s going to be pissed off about this for days, fucking asshole.

Val sighs, “okay you’re not wrong on that, I thought the same. At least I didn’t freaking ask though, Danny. I thought you were just going to say hi, not be an insensitive jerk”.

Fenton scowls at her, sticking his arms out, “I didn’t fucking ask, he just assumed I wanted to, which yeah was right”, and grumbles a little incoherently before taking some breaths to avoid snarling at anyone else especially not the only human connection he still had. Ugh.

Val shakes her head at him, “okay I guess you can get to be annoyed, not mad, annoyed. Star’s civil with me even though we had our falling out”, crossing her arms, “Paulina not so much”.

Fenton grumbling, “if Sam had shown up I’d expect her to slap me at this point. Fucking zone”.

Star hums, having apparently made her way over after overhearing her name, “yeah she replied in the discord chat that she wouldn’t deign to show up to rejoin a shitty town full of people that were morally horrific”.

“Ancients that’s messed up, what the Zone Sam”. Fenton blinks and shakes his head, what the hell happened with her? He doesn’t want to know. Was she always that egocentric and holier than thou? If so it was probably better for everyone she had no say in him and what he does. Did childhood him just suck at picking friends? “Wait. There’s a discord?”.

Star puts a hand on her hip and cocks an eyebrow, “yup. All anyone could find on you was an address so we couldn’t exactly give you a code in”.

Val shaking her head and forcing a little laugh, eyeing Fenton, “if I had known no one had your number I would have sent it. I figured you just had no interest in messaging anyone, like me”, she waves a hand dismissively, “I confirmed I was showing up and dipped”.

Fucking great. Love it.

Danny notices Tucker pushing himself over to talk to Jesse. Danny chooses to ignore that. If he sends Phantom over he might just accidentally start a brawl and that was a very bad idea.

Star shakes her head, “would it kill either of you to be a bit more sociable?”.

Fenton immediately responding with, “yes”. Phantom with, “already did”. And Val with, “probably”. Making Star sigh and Silver laugh; Silver walking off right after, Danny pretending not to notice them point aggressively at Tucker. Ugh.

“Phantom! Come meet my husband! He’s heard stories about you and got curious!”. Phantom glancing to the side at Ashely then to Fenton with a quirked eyebrow.

Fenton waving him off, “go, I’ll be fine, you stupid celebrity”. Danny makes a point to have Phantom give Fenton a quick peck on the cheek, making Fenton blush a little, before running off. Val’s barely restrained look of horror is so worth it and definitely improves his mood.

Star shakes her head, “well at least it looks like you’re in a better mood now, this is supposed to be fun”.

“Then why are all the drinks liquor free?”.

“Because Todd has a liquor problem and I know you know it”.

Okay yeah that wasn’t wrong. All the local bartenders knew him by first and last name, zone some knew the middle one too. Sure they also knew Danny by first and both lasts but that was for an entirely different reason… he did also drink though so like it was a toss up. Then she glances to the side, winces slightly, and jambs a thumb over her shoulder, “anyway’s I’m going to check on everyone else. See if more people are better off not being in the same room”. Ouch. True but she didn’t need to say it. Star pointing at Val, “you’re coming whether you like it or not, you can talk to Danny whenever you want”. Val grumbles but doesn’t put up a fight.

Fenton shaking his head and laughing a little to himself, now what should he do? He frankly didn’t feel like dealing with anyone now, especially not all these chuckle fucks. He’s half tempted to just wander into the bathroom and stare at the mirror for twenty minutes self actualising or whatever. Grimacing, yeah he’s gonna do that, plus all this ecto free food was grating on his stomachs nerves.

He could eat normal foods, it’s just the ecto made it taste better and easier on his system to digest. Didn’t help that he grew up eating contaminated shit, thanks Maddie and Jack, and basically only ate contaminated shit after the whole half dying thing; it was an easy thing to do in Amity after all since everything was contaminated. But this was Elmerton and the food was definitely from outside the city, probably to specifically ensure it was ecto free. Yuck.

So Fenton meanders his way over to the gym bathroom/locker room, stuffing a hand in his pocket as he goes. Him popping into the sink and mirror area, kicking the door closed-ish and pulling out an ectoplasm vial at the same time, tossing it back without much hesitation. He didn’t hear anyone else in here and plus he also didn’t super care, which fine was partly because his attention was split into two different places and almost no one would really genuinely question him outside of Val obviously.

Granted Val would know exactly what he was doing and why.

“Did you seriously think I’d been hurt bad?”.

“Fuck!”, Fenton jumps, tossing the vial in the air, (Phantom jerking in his conversation about welding of all things) at the frankly very unexpected sound of Tucker’s voice. It took some doing to actually startle him, but guesses he was in his own head enough that someone was able to pull it off. Didn’t help that he just came from a room full of people whose scents he doesn’t recognise anymore. It bothered him a little. Fenton turning away from the mirror and looking down at Tucker, “uh?”. And then the fucking ecto vial clinks on to the ground and rolls across it in that loud way glass tends to do. Well fuck him, this shit is entirely his fault right oh wow this is instantly awkward.

Tucker stares down at the vial on the ground before looking back up at Fenton, “new question, what was that”.

See that did not sound like a question. Okay, self, shit, what to say? If this was anyone else, other than Val, he’d just say it was a weird Amity energy drink and he was tired and to piss off. Zone he’s tempted to say that crap anyways, but Tucker had sounded… apologetic, even if he’d startled Danny. He can’t not lie though. Well… technically, if he mentally twisted things around enough, calling ecto an addiction for him wasn’t wrong per say. He legit couldn’t exist without ecto, his system was dependent on it, so like, he could go with that? And now Tucker’s glaring at him like he’s thinking about ramming into Danny. Fenton blinking before shrugging awkwardly, “addiction’s compulsory, or whatever. And yes?”. Crap this was a really stupid plan of action. Way more stupid than dating himself, Ancients.

Tucker blinks, “addiction?”, shaking his head, “I don’t even care about the first question now”, frowning, “well I do, you jerk, but less”.

That’s fair, Danny thinks. Fenton shrugs, “that accident fucked me up, okay? Kinda needed ectoplasm ever since. Which sure, wasn’t exactly something I wanted to share with anyone. And maybe I didn’t deal with that well, but I think I dealt with that right. And I guess that’s all that matters”. Okay cool, so this is how he’s going to explain ditching them as friends, great. Fuck Danny’s so goddamn stupid. ‘Addiction’ was not on his bingo card of how to explain how weird he was to people… he really should update that stupid card.

Tucker’s glaring again like Danny’s done something wrong, except Danny doesn’t know why Fenton him is getting glared at this time. “Are you lying to me?”.

Fenton glaring back before sticking out his tongue, which was coated in faintly glowing green of course. Pulling his tongue back in, “do you know anything else that looks like that besides ecto? ‘Cause I sure don’t”; that had a bit more bite than he meant it to but oh well, he’s still kinda ticked off with this man so…

“And it doesn’t get you high?”.

Okay see now Danny’s getting actually ticked again. Fucking damn it. “No. Now if you’re going to just ride my ass then let me out so I can go somewhere that isn’t here”.

Tucker doesn’t move, in fact he locks his damn wheels, “no. Because that last conversation made me feel like an asshole and I refuse to feel like an asshole over you deciding to isolate yourself”, gesturing at the vial that’s still on the ground, “especially if all of it was over some stupid ectoplasm issue, you jack ass”.

“So what I’m hearing is you’re just being selfish”.

“So what if I am, I think I’ve earned that from you”.

Danny makes Fenton him relax over that, because if anything letting people take their issues out on him was something he was good for. “Ugh I guess that’s okay then”.

Now Tucker’s glaring again, “what”.

For fucks sake. “Dude, you’ve known me for years, since when did I ever put myself first? If you want to use me as a punching bag to unload your issues on, go right ahead”, snorting, “cause yeah, I’m well fucking aware it’s been earned. If you were Dash I’d tell you to piss off again”.

Tucker sticks his arms out, basically smacking the door, “so you’ll tell me to ‘piss off’ over not wanting to talk to you but won’t over me wanting to berate you?! Seriously?!”.

“Yes”. Fuck that was weird wasn’t it? Do normal human people do that? Or was he coming off as a massive hypocrite? Or as a masochist maybe?

Tucker pinches the bridge of his nose, still doesn’t unlock his chair though, “damn it, you have a bunch of mental issues now, don’t you”.

“Rude”.

“Yeah well now I just feel like more of an asshole, so there”.

They stare at each other for a beat, Danny’s trying really hard to mostly ignore Phantom having to play nice with Dale and his loose tongue again, apparently the guy really liked bluey. Fuck when was the last time Danny got really genuinely into any tv show? Had he even watched one since he dropped out? Crap probably not. If he had down time he was usually laying on the floor staring at the ceiling with a music playlist running, or having a quick drink with Val, or trying to study ghost history, or replaying an old video game he’s beaten hundreds of times just to feel young and carefree again.

Wow that had to be unhealthy. Not that he really cared about that. Blinking at Tucker, “so… what do you do for work”.

“I’m not telling you”.

“Fuck you too then I guess”.

Tucker puts his face in a hand and sighs very deeply with a muttered, “I was right, I really should not have come”, before lifting his head up and glaring up at Danny with goddamn pity in his eyes, “look, okay, I am sorry about brushing you off if you were genuinely worried about me having been badly injured and I guess I’m sorry you have this addiction issue, but you brought it on yourself. Me and Sam could have helped, you ass”.

“Tuck-”, crap he’s back to calling him ‘Tuck’ goddamn it, “-my head was a fucking mess after that shit, I have literally no memory from the three months after that crap. Just a boat load of pain cutting straight to sitting up in bed violently vomiting up ectoplasm. Excuse me for making some jack ass choices but again, I stand by those choices”, running a hand through his hair and leaning his ass back against the sink, “I thought that shit was gonna end with me dead, sooner rather than later, and I didn’t want to take you guys down with me. So I had to choose between the life I had with you guys and the moral thing to do. Kinda an obvious choice there, to me”. Honestly? Why was he explaining this shit now? Was it because his life was somehow less chaotic now? Or because he was an adult ghost and fully grown into what and who he was? Loneliness perhaps? Or did he just not want Tucker to actually hate him?

Tucker stares at him before wheezing, “Christ I wish you had just told at least me that”, massaging his temples and using the chairs arms to rest his elbows on, “if I remember right, which I might not, you basically didn’t talk and just stared blankly, it was creepy but your parents assured everyone you wouldn’t have any ‘long term’ issues. That you were just recovering and in shock. Not that dumbass fourteen year olds knew shit about shock-”.

Seriously? Seriously! What the Hell! Fenton blurting out, “what the zone is wrong with them! in what world would getting electrocuted by literally billions of volts not have a lasting effect?!”.

“-me and Sam basically carried you everywhere and babied you and then you suddenly flipped on us and avoided us like the plagu- wait what”.

Tucker looks horrified, crap that was not Danny’s goal. Oh well, he’s in it now. Fenton blinking, “Jack and Maddie sucking is what”.

“Dude”.

Fenton swallowing and rubbing his neck, “you guys were taking care of me?”. Okay so maybe Danny had been more of a jerk to them than he realised but still. Tucker glares so Danny bites the bullet and has Fenton respond properly, Tucker was an adult now not some teen who’d do stupid shit like follow Danny Phantom’s sorry ass into combat, “it was something like four billion volts, it was a miracle I wasn’t instantly vaporised into ash. As it was apparently Jazz came home to them attempting to bury what they thought was my dead body in the back yard, apparently I woke up during the argument and crawled out and ran into trees for three days”.

“They told us you were missing because you were in another cities hospital! They tried to bury you?!?”. Somehow Jack and Maddie just keep getting worse. Tucker wheezes again, “well regardless of you becoming an asshole, I’m glad you didn’t die, holy shit”, staring at Danny, “is that why you were so weird about my wheelchair? You thought something like that had happened to me?”. He takes Fenton’s wince as a yes. “Ugh fine you’re forgiven for that then, I can’t hold what’s probably severe trauma and ptsd against someone”, pointing at Danny, “you were still a jerk then and now though. And you basically shoving me away was awful and basically wrecked me mentally for a long time”.

Yeah Danny knew neither Sam nor Tucker took him pushing them away well, but being upset or depressed or confused or worried was better than getting caught in an undead fist fight or losing a limb or getting contaminated by him which he had thought back then would have been extremely dangerous. “I thought it was for the best, okay? And I didn’t mean to hurt you when I was basically hurting myself”.

“How the hell was push me away from my best friend ‘for the best’?!?”.

“Because I was all fucked up and I didn’t want my shit fucking you up”. That was part of it, at first anyways. Then it quickly became more of him having to be the hero and get into fights and not wanting anyone getting caught in the crossfires and waiting them to keep the ability to live normal fucking lives unlike him.

Tucker stares at him like he actually somehow gets it, huh, Danny didn’t see that one coming. “So you thought you’d get us sick? Or something? Just by being around us? Okay I know you’ve always been a bit of a dumbass but goddamn it, Danny”.

“I don’t know what the hell is happening in there but I’m taking a piss in the ladies room! what in the!”.

Both Fenton and Tuck (and Phantom for that matter) jerk a little from whoever shouted from outside the bathroom/locker room. Fenton cringing his face up, “right, this is a public space”.

Tucker sighing, “maybe not the best place for this crap conversation”, unlocking his wheels and roll backwards out of the little sink and mirror area doorway, “I’m still mad at you though”.

“That’s fair. I’m not looking to rekindle friendship or whatever”. Danny uses the man’s distraction to have Fenton telekinetically move the vial back into his hand and pocket.

“Seriously. Jerk”.

Fenton shrugs as he moves out of the little doorway, “I only really hang out with ghosts now and I actually am unsafe to be around too much if whoever doesn’t have a tolerance or protective gear, the ecto-contamination and shit”.

“That’s… pretty shitty actually”.

Fenton giving back a snide, “gee thanks”.

“You still shouldn’t have pushed us away. But I guess you still want to do that, so you do you I guess. Its not like I actually know you, or you me, anymore”.

“Yup”. Tucker bashes him in the back of the legs with the chair for that, “hey!”. Danny making Fenton sigh at the glare… and at Dash attempting to drill Phantom about football like that mattered anymore. Phantom couldn’t be sighing at Dash after all, images to maintain and all. “Look, Tucker, you got pissy over me staring at your wheelchair, that tells me your life’s doing pretty alright actually. If I was in a wheelchair and someone was staring I’d assume they were trying figure out how to use it to kill me. I sell weapons illegally and am dating a death god king, I’m not really shit you wanna be involved in”.

“What about Valerie?”, Tucker making a bit of a face, “that soul mate ghost thing I’ve been hearing is real?”.

Danny is absolutely about to throw Val under the bus, servers her right for still hanging around his half dead ass. “She… is a coworker let’s say, a not legal one”, not technically a lie, the Red Huntress wasn’t legally allowed to do what she did, it was just that no one could actually stop her. Thank fuck for that. Fenton huffing, “and we mostly only talk over drinks or if we run into each other during ghost attacks”. Then smirking, “and oh yeah me and Phantom are fucking match made in hell”. His own personal hell of protective desire and pain.

“You know what, you’re right. You’re an asshole, a criminal, and a necrophiliac; I’m out. I almost want to try but you stopped being worth it years ago. Still glad you’re not dead though”.

On one hand Danny wants to smack the guy, on the other hand Danny’s getting exactly what he wanted; and ain’t that just a terrible thing?

“How’d you find out you needed ectoplasm?”.

Oh Ancients, well… nothing was weirder than the truth with that one and fuck it at this point. “First time I ran into a whisp ghost I, kinda, couldn’t, exactly, stop myself from eating it”.

“You… ate a ghost?”.

“It was a really bad day and I’d rather you keep that in confidence”. Man he legit wants to get out of this damn bathroom/locker room now. Ugh. He starts walking to the door.

Tucker makes a gagging sound, muttering, “no one would even believe me anyway. I’m starting to think he did actually do me a favour as kids and that kinda pisses me off a little. I’ve spent too long being mad at that shit ass for me to feel good about that shit”.

Danny making Fenton pause at the door, one hand on it, “dude, I have freaky good hearing, go see your therapist and I hope you have one. You’re not the lost cause in this bathroom”, and then pushes his way out, leaving his old friend and the friendship more firmly behind.

He absolutely has Phantom ‘rescue’ Fenton immediately, throwing an arm around Fenton’s neck and ruffling his hair with the other hand, “I have escaped Dash and him ‘regaling me’ with his glory days”.

Danny makes Fenton sigh to seem tired, “that’s…”, brightening up, “thats good. He really did peek in Highschool, just like he said he would”. A self fulfilling prophecy, Danny pretty much did the exact same. The biggest jock and the biggest loser both fucking themselves up in the end; how ironic.

Danny makes Fenton sigh to seem tired, “that’s…”, brightening up, “that’s good. He really did peek in Highschool, just like he said he would”. A self fulfilling prophecy, Danny pretty much did the exact same. The biggest jock and the biggest loser both fucking themselves up in the end.

Then Val goes and actually rescues his ass, stomping over, “let’s bounce. I don’t want to be here or around these people anymore, and I want to get shitfaced until I start putting holes in walls or pass out on your crappy apartment floor”.

Fenton quirks an eyebrow, “you have literally never been over? How do you know it’s shitty?”.

“Because it’s your apartment”.

“Fuck you”.

Phantom quirking an eyebrow at her and tilting his head, “and who pissed you off?”.

Val grimaces, “Paulina, I swear she needs to get stabbed a couple times”.

Phantom laughing while Fenton gestures at Val with both of his hands, “no. Bad. If you start stabbing little miss pretty puddle I’ll get stuck having to clean up the blood before the cops show up-”. He can feel Tucker’s concerned eyes on him as the man wheels out of the bathroom/locker room. “-and I really don’t feel like being on crime scene clean up duty”.

Phantom perking up, “eh I could just phase it through the ground”.

“Don’t encourage her murderous desire”.

Val grins, though clearly still thinking this is super weird, “no, let him speak, he makes good points”.

“His only point is letting you make a point with a knife point”. She scowls at Fenton’s joke immediately, nice, at least that makes him feel legitimately a bit better. Either way Danny is content to leave this place before shit goes anymore south, and he has frankly had enough of humans and their weirdly boring plain interests. Looking at the crowd, it actually looked like some others had left. Todd, no surprise there. Charlie that he doesn’t think he ever even talked to as Fenton, he’s not sure if they talked in high school either though. Two of the jocks also looked to have bounced, Dash was still her of course and Scott didn’t look like he actually wanted to be talking to him. Ha. Brittany doesn’t look to be around either, meaning Sarah’s probably gone too if she was ever even here.

And then.

Of fucking course.

His ghost sense goes off.

Val’s reaction is instant, her folding out a blaster, the second she notices both Danny’s straightening up, stiff, and glancing around. Danny making both hims relax with annoyed sighs when he realizes who it is or one of the whos whatever. Phantom waving Val off, “it’s an eyeball, don’t”. The woman throws her hands up a bit, clearly annoyed that it was one of the ghosts that Danny was pretty strict on her not fighting.

Danny making Fenton scowl deeply, “oh fucking goddamn it, not those assholes”. Phantom rolling his green eyes fondly before stepping forward some and cupping his hands around his mouth, Danny should at least warn these people, “hey! Non-hostile incoming! They’re probably just showing to annoy me!”.

The reactions is immediate. Guess spending multiple teenage years in a town constantly plagued by ghost attacks tends to stick with you. Everyone pulling away from the walls, and anything box-shaped, and sticking to groups while glancing around in mild panic. The Observant comes up through the floor, jerk, in all their eye-ball shaped ugly cloak wearing green-skinned annoyance. “Phantom-”. Oh Danny can tell they’re here to lecture him or chastise him or something equally annoying and pointless. Nope. He’s not putting up with this.

Fenton smacking Phantom, “make me a suction dart gun construct”. Danny having Phantom do that without hesitation, even if it was a bit harder to make ecto-energy constructs outside of Amity or the Ghost Zone. Phantom passing over the sorta weapon, it has a pump action shotgun reload for comedic effect. Fenton pumping it immediately and shooting the Observant in the head/eye, “not today, eyeball asshole”.

“Phantom-”.

Oh how chastising, Fenton shots him again, “no”. The suction cups are actually sticking, awesome. But he’s got no interest in actually letting the eyeball actually say anything, so Fenton stalks over, putting a finger in the ghosts face, “fuck off, ‘Phantom’ isn’t your goddamn servant”. The Observant doesn’t look remotely chastised which frankly Danny’s a little goddamn ticked off about. These guys were constantly riding his ass and they act like they had some sort of high ground on him which they did not. So Danny has Fenton kick the ghost in the chest and basically jump on their chest, pointing the ‘gun’ in its eyeball/face and shooting it enough to cover its whole iris; its point blank enough to actually injury the ghost. The Observants were always more powerful as a mass than alone.

“Are you done?!”.

Fenton smirking, “no”, and smacking the ghost on the top of their head with the butt of the ‘gun’. Lowing the ‘weapon’ some, sighing tiredly, “now if this isn’t something actually important, I’m going to rip off all of your limbs”. And Danny means that, he will, he’s had it up to here with these guys.

The Observant, seeming to get this, just fucking disappears with a, “you need to be bound”; like he wasn’t aware they hated how much power he had.

“Fuck you. You exist in my favour”, Fenton hurling the ‘gun’ construct at the ground, it bouncing up a bit before dissolving into goo. Stupid jackasses.

“Geez Fenton where was that in high school, what the hell!”.

Both Danny’s jerking, Fenton looking back to Steven, “do you know how many ghosts annoy me because of that asshole?”, gesturing a thumb at Phantom who glances around innocently. Fenton huffing, “and yeah maybe I enjoy annoying the ones that annoy him, sue me”.

What makes it so clear that basically all these people have nothing to do with Amity any more is how all of them look on edge, nervous, unsettled, scared. They don’t ‘bounce back’ instantly and more than a couple eye Phantom nervously like they had just now remembered how arguably dangerous he could be. That Phantom was a ghost and could very well kill everyone in this room without much effort. As if Danny ever would do such a thing, he was a protector and if they wanted to forget that then screw them. Amity always was the weird place where humans and ghosts could actually remotely get along, even that was a crap shoot, humans would always be unsettled by ghosts and trying for genuine coexistence was fucking pointless. These people simply being away from ghosts for a few years and yet acting put off by one that was less human simply showing up was almost insulting to all his effort. Whatever, what did he care if most of humanity was too damn weak to handle not being the top of the food chain. Making Fenton scoff at everyone’s stares, “guess I should get gone, huh?”, and nods his head at Phantom.

Phantom stretching out and floating up to sort of lay in the air on his back, finger gunning at Val, “coming?”, as he moves to hover around Fenton’s head, ruffling Fenton’s hair fondly.

Jason blinking, “you know, I almost felt like I missed Highschool, thanks for reminding me why I absolutely do not”, and wheezes. While Star waves the two Danny’s off, “yeah should have guessed a ghost that wasn’t invited might follow Phantom”.

Phantom chuckling, “what can I say, I’m very attractive”. Making Fenton snort and blush, “shut up, you stupid ghost”. And making Phantom snicker meanly at Fenton.

Kwan shouting, “you better have a cute wedding!”.

Val rolling her eyes at the pair, pocketing her gun, and walking towards them while waving a hand over her shoulder, “bye. This was nice though”, muttering to herself barely loud enough for even Danny to hear, “regardless of certain people”.

Fenton rolling his eyes and waving at everyone, “I’d say you can easily visit me but I made myself hard to find for a damn reason and I vaguely hate most of your guts, peace bitches”. Phantom facepalming, watching Val and Fenton walk towards the door for a beat before looking to the people, him still floating up in the air, “everyone’s free to give me a visit of course, even though the fact that no one had before makes it kinda clear no one will, no hard feelings about that by the by. Besides, when you die we’ll met again”.

Star sighs at him, “that’s needlessly ominous, Phantom”. Phantom shrugging before floating off, “I’m dead, I don’t know what you expect. I can tell that none of you are going to die soon, so there’s that”, and giving them a thumbs up, absolutely ignoring how that doesn’t seem to actually make anyone feel better. It’s not Danny’s problem if ‘normal’ people aren’t comforted with ominous messages about the not so untimely demise, he thinks it would be a good thing knowing you’re not gonna die soon. Like really. He personally would have loved a heads up that he was gonna half die when that shit happened, a little count down or something would have been nice. A little count down to obliterating everything he used to be and wanted to be.

You know.

For the dramatics.

Danny absorbs his duplicate as soon as he’s outside of easy viewing range of the building, Val quirking an eyebrow at him, “I’m guessing you didn’t drive here?”.

“No? Why would I do that? And neither did you”.

She snorts at him, summoning out her board, “well hop on, I’m still down for drinks so”.

Danny eyes the board, “naw I probably should pass”. Bonding wasn’t really a good idea anyways.

She rolls her eyes, “come on, don’t be a stranger”.

“Being a stranger is kinda the point”. He has every intention of just going invisible and flying off, but she grabs his arm and yanks him onto the board before he can follow through on that thought, her muttering about him being a dumbass the whole time. Danny eyeing her, hands in his pockets and just sitting on the board, stupid stubborn ghost hunters.

Though… looking down, it was kinda nice to watch the city sights this leisurely. It’s filled with spots of damage and things being repaired even here in Elmerton still. It was impossible for everything to stay contained in one simple city after all, sometimes Danny debating expanding is human lair a bit more, just to keep more of an eye on more of it. Perhaps that was a speck of greed or just his overprotective nature.

Really it wouldn’t take much, honestly he had the power and ability to take over the entire planet if he so chose. And really, ghosts did crop up everywhere, and further ecto-contaminated cities and towns would just make more places possible to be common ground of sorts.

It wasn’t a bad idea…

Just not a good or human one either. He had to play human games to thrive and be accepted in the human world, even if those games were sometimes stupid and annoying and isolating. Hmmm… maybe he should get drinks with Val, she was at least slightly better with normal human things than him.

Looking down, there’s some patches of green growing in ash. Life from death, strength from destruction. Kinda like him.

She lands them on the ground, Danny standing easily as her board folds up becoming nanobots under and through her veins; an altered state of being similar and not to himself. Her making ‘come on’ gestures at him before heading in to one of the more beat down bars that don’t ask questions and assumes every patron is involved in something shady or another.

And Danny follows. Maybe he was a little too much of a loner.

End.

Prompts: Pretending to be someone's boyfriend for a night was not as high on Danny's list of crazy-ideas-he-should've-said-no-to as, say, agreeing to become the King of all ghosts, but it was definitely up there. Ten years since Danny graduated high school, and fourteen years since his accident. The former A-listers are organizing a high school reunion, and somehow both Danny AND Phantom got an invite… Seriously, how are these things still happening to him? Parents take apart Danny’s telescope for a new invention. Being dead somewhat drastically shuffles around your priorities. It's been a long time since Danny was able to remember what a human would feel to be important. Tucker Foley's terrible, awful, very bad day. No one knows au identity reveal

[mywritesaremylove]

Tropical Trouble

Danny Williams x Steve McGarrett's Best Friend

Danny Williams considered himself a man of principle. He liked clear rules, decent coffee, and people who didn’t make his life harder than it already was. So when Steve McGarrett casually dropped the bomb that his best friend from the Naval Academy was moving to the island to join Five-0, Danny braced for another hurricane.

He didn’t expect her.

She wasn’t just trouble, she was sun-kissed disaster wrapped in a slinky dress and combat boots, and Danny didn’t trust her the second she smiled at him with that infuriating glint in her eyes.

“I’m not here to step on any Jersey toes,” she said on her first day, propping her feet up on an empty desk like she owned the place. “Unless they’re asking for it.”

Danny had blinked. “You realize this is a government facility, right? Not an open mic night at a surf bar.”

She just winked. “Relax, Danny. I’m fully qualified. I passed the psych eval and everything.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t reassure me.”

And yet, against his better judgment, he kept watching her.

The way she handled herself in the field—fast, fearless, decisive. The way she cracked a joke under pressure just to keep everyone grounded. She reminded him of Steve in all the worst ways, and all the best ones, too.

But it was the quiet moments that got to him. The way her voice softened when she talked to victims’ families. The way she always brought him an extra coffee without being asked, saying she liked the way he muttered complaints into the lid. The way she called him “Danno” with just the right amount of sarcasm to make it sting and stick.

He was falling. Slowly, stupidly, against every ounce of logic he had left.

It all came to a head one night after a long case—gunfire, a car chase, and a suspect with a machete who very nearly took Danny’s head off. She had tackled the guy from behind, saving him with a wild, breathless kind of bravery that made his chest ache.

“You’re insane,” he said afterward, as she cleaned the cut on his arm in the Five-0 kitchen. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed.”

She was close. Too close. Her hands were steady, but her eyes, those damn eyes, held a flicker of something softer. “You’re welcome.”

He swallowed. “That’s not the point.”

“You’re welcome, Danno,” she said again, quieter this time.

He didn’t say thank you. He couldn’t. If he did, he’d say too much. So he stared at the wall while she wrapped him up in silence, and he tried very hard not to notice how her fingers lingered on his skin.

Later that week, she knocked on the door of his apartment. Windblown hair, bare feet, a six-pack of beer in one hand.

“You looked like you could use a distraction,” she said.

Danny opened the door. He didn’t think. Didn’t hesitate. “You’re my favorite kind.”

They didn’t talk much that night. Just the sound of waves outside his balcony, her laughter, his stubborn heartbeat catching every time she leaned in too close.

“You know Steve’s gonna kill me if he finds out,” he said eventually, beer halfway to his lips.

She smirked, nudging his foot with hers. “Let him try.”

And maybe that was the moment he gave up pretending. Because yeah, she was reckless and complicated and a walking contradiction to every safe decision he’d ever made.

But she made him feel alive in a way he hadn’t in years. Like this place, this unpredictable, sun-drenched island, might actually be starting to feel like home.

So when Steve cornered him a few days later, arms crossed, eyebrow raised, and said, “You’ve got it bad, buddy,” Danny didn’t even deny it.

“Yeah,” he muttered. “I know.”

Steve just sighed, clapped him on the shoulder, and walked away.

That night, when she curled up next to him on his couch, her head on his shoulder and her laughter still echoing in his ears, Danny let himself believe, for once, that maybe falling for trouble wasn’t the worst thing he’d ever done.

[lass-us-slay]

Alr so I was watching edits and came across Arlecchino and an idea popped into my head!

Danny Phantom as Arlecchino in DC also know as: Phantom the Knave Sovereign

(Still working on the name- Before we start I wanna say, I’m just trouble shooting rn and seeing what new ideas I could add with your guys input too. But so far this is what I have)

———

Ok so plot points:

Somehow Pariah Dark gets free of the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, either because of Vlad or the Observants

Pariah seeing potential in Danny (and cause he was already dubbed to take Pariahs place after he was old enough) starts trying to become Danny’s parental model (much like Vlad. But Worse.)

It was annoying at first, but slowly over time, Pariah started taking his role as Danny’s “Father” too far and twisted. Wanting to make Danny strong, stronger than he ever will be.

Then one thing leads to another and an identity reveal happens. Except the Fentons now pretend Danny Fenton no longer exists, and it’s just Danny Phantom that is an after image of their boy. Which pains them so they keep their distance, but still help what they think is left of their boy.

Danny is sad about that- but he has his sister Jazz and his two best friends! He can live with his parents pretending he doesn’t exist, atleast not as Danny Fenton no he can’t- he really can’t-

Then shit hits the fan, resulting in Danny’s home dimension into imploding into itself. (Which may or may not be the fault of Pariah Dark)

Luckily Danny is able to get out with Jazz!

But he’s too angry to rationalize himself after the death of his Haunt and almost all his fraid dying. He attacks and attacks Pariah and observers and whoever that threatens his last family at every turn.

More shit hits the fan, resulting in Danny getting cursed, which really hurts Danny. Enough to do weird ghost shenanigans to his biology, (via curse), and Jazz gets caught up.

Pariah sees a golden opportunity to use this to get Danny stronger to become the next king.

But Clockwork has had enough and steps in. Only to be promptly sealed away by the still acting king; Pariah Dark. Which Danny not even knowing as he’s out for the count thanks to the curse. (Jazz is the only witness. But Pariah can’t kill her because of Danny.)

More stuff happens and now Pariah is the acting Father of Danny and Jazz (with amnesia) who are in a ghost normal(?) orphanage with other kids.

Basically Arlecchino’s childhood happens to Danny and Jazz. Just that Pariah has decided to false make Jazz his “bio” kid to mentally fuck with Danny (smol child, and poor Jazz).

Danny still sees Jazz as his sis even if he doesn’t remember

After Jazz sadly doesn’t make it, Danny faces off Pariah once more for the first time. And consumes Pariahs Core into his, eating him alive so no more Pariah for the rest or eternity.

Then remembers- holy shit his names Danny! Not Peruere, which ew- (kidding I love the name-)

Anyways Danny gets mad at Clockwork only to find him sealed and the timelines fucked- and with Clockwork being so weak since the seal-ment, it’s up to Danny to fix the mess (and the one that was caused by the Observants once more with no one on the throne)

And so now Danny travels around timelines, picking up strays and adopting them (much like Batman, but better)

That there is the rough outline of the story!! I probably will make more but I just need to organize my thoughts before going into finer things (and art!)

Also I’d like to mention- while in the orphanage, Danny’s human side takes on more physical characteristics of his ghost form. Sorta merging the two forms into one? Not sure about it.

But Danny’s human form has definitely changed, and the curse is the same as Arlecchinos from Genshin (although would be nice if someone actually explained the curse to me fully- cause I don’t get it at all 😭)

Anyways that’s it- im thinking about interactions with the kids Danny Adopts and such but that’s for another time 💀

Aight peace ✌️

[radiance1]

Ok new random au idea thing.

So, the basis of this au is that Danny isn't actually as ok as he could've been after the portal incident, yes, he still has ghost powers and yes, he can switch between the two but is core is unstable.

It's fully formed yet lacks some of the key features of a regular ghost core, one of them being wherein they pull ectoplasm from the surroundings to keep themselves going but Danny's does not.

So him going ghost has a timer.

His parents also find out his secret when he couldn't keep the ghost transformation for long, and they don't try to kill him or anything, but they do pull him down to their lab to figure out if there was any way to reverse what happened to him.

Which there wasn't. But they did find out something else.

Right under Danny's heart rested a fully formed core. Which is not something that should be possible, it makes him physically weaker, less aware of his surroundings and slow in his movements.

They blame it on how his core is actively pulling in the ectoplasm in his blood needed to keep him alive to sustain his ghost half probably, but even that is a stretch considering how his ghost half isn't all that stable either.

At least compared to other ghosts.

So, they made it mandatory that Danny take shots of ectoplasm into his bloodstream consistently so his core wouldn't begin to draw the ectoplasm from his own blood. And it worked, Danny no longer felt so fatigued and could stay in his ghost form for far longer than he could before.

But Vlad, unlike him. Didn't need to take any shots of ectoplasm or anything of the sort, he was proper, genuine halfa. With all the perks of being both human and ghost with none of the drawbacks of Danny.

Vlad wasn't obsessed with Maddie here, no. He hated the both of them, he blamed them for the accident he got into and losing all those years of his life withering away in a hospital. So when he found they had a son, a son who was basically a feeble, weaker version of him.

He decided to take away something like they took away from him.

Danny was left in a remote location for hours on end, his core starting suck away the ectoplasm in his bloodstream until barely anything was left, and then it started taking the blood.

He was barely even coherent when his parents finally found him, injecting him with a syringe of ectoplasm to keep him stable enough until they got back to their lab. Jack and Maddie then decided to dig out a big hole, single out the life-giving effects of ectoplasm until there was nothing but that and dump him in it.

They did have to cut open his chest, to give his core proper access to the pool. They pretended not to notice how barely any blood sprang from the cut.

When they finally placed him inside, two things happened.

Danny's core was energized, supercharged, even.

Such supercharged energy exploded.

His latent ice abilities expelled from his core, covering the lab and everything in it. Before the entirety of Amity Park as well and a good chunk of the surrounding forests. Vlad was relatively unaffected, his fire core melting through the ice easily until seeing how said ice creeped back up no matter how much he burned through it.

So he decided to just turn his back and leave, it wasn't any skin off of his back whatever happened. Jack and Maddie probably also died from all the frost so really it kinda just saved him the trouble.

Time went on, and the ice encased world of Amity Park did not. Years passed as the ice slowly spread, the ectoplasm from the (somehow still activated) portal leaking through to cover the ice covered town. The ice spread further out into the forest, absolutely consuming it along with everything in it, the mass amounts of ectoplasm helped formed multiple ghosts though.

It was many, many years later until life stepped into the city again.

One Ra's Al Ghul.

[notedgyanymore]

DpxDc prompt

How to make friends and influence heroes (AU)

Unfortunately, Danny can’t continue dismantling the GIW on his own, after being abruptly crowned the ghost king against his will, he no longer can influence mortal affairs as directly as he once could, and attempting to do so would only result in imprisonment much like the one suffered by his predecessor.

Now Danny’s only chance is to learn how to influence mortals the way of the ancients by making deals, cultivating cults, ordering his subjects, and even harvesting human vessels of all things which Danny did try his best to protest and argue that his own body was his mortal receptacle, but that apparently didn’t count, and using his kingly powers in his human form would still result in trouble.

However, there was a riskier alternative, so maybe all that spooky nonsense wasn’t needed after all, as it turns out befriending heroes while pretending to be a revenant was good enough subtlety. It was extremely dangerous, but it would work as long as he doesn’t reveal his true nature or abilities to anyone who's fully alive, meaning that among all of his new friends, the only one with whom he can share the truth is Jason Todd, the man who fabricated his cover-up story to begin with.

Extra context!

Mortal affairs = everything that happens in the living world.

Yes, even events pertaining to ghost hunting.

 

Danny’s parents don’t know that he’s a ghost.

But they now think that he is a revenant.

They accept him as such.

However, it would be a different story if they knew the truth.

[lapetiteceinturesworld]

Hi folks! I come today with a long, emotional and painful scene. ❤️

There was no emotion on Tommy's face. He didn't even have to bother pretending to be impassive. It was not isolation and not detachment. It was what it looked like: he had torn off the feelings as if they had never existed. As if he were not a human being. As if he knew himself not to be, that he could never be fully that again, and now he was showing it to her. He wanted her to see him through his transformation, Grace realised in disbelief. To make her disgust by it.

"The Germans. Soldiers just like me. The same toys on the blackboard, the size of which can never be comprehended by reason. Among them was the boy with the green eyes. They found their way out of the tunnels, through the mud, through the filth, took me back into the darkness, no matter how I fought with them. I looked down at my hand. It was covered in blood." His eyelids fluttered as if he wanted to look down at his hands resting palms up. Finally his gaze stayed where it was. By then the nihil of destruction had reached him. Everything was happening in his eyes. "I thought: whose hand is this? It cannot be mine. I can’t exist in a reality, where these hands belong to me just as any other parts of my body. A terrible, burning wave of pain washed over me from my shoulder. I was shot. I thought: finally. Finally I can lie down on the ground and die. All it need was a little bit more. But that little suddenly become too much." Hollowed-out, frozen dread, and burning fright like the fire that heats the blast furnaces of factories. "I opened my eyes, I was there again. Just me, Danny and Freddie. We fight for our lives like rats for the last piece of raw meat. I was writhing on the ground, in my nose a mixture of ammonia, gunpowder and some sludgy, sticky, disgusting mass, crawling to the ladder. Danny screamed, Freddie… I had no idea what had happened to him. I couldn’t make out anything in the darkness, not the shapes of people or the walls of the tunnels, I could only hear the voices and smell the smells. It was as if I had become blind. I begged with the last shreds of my faith for someone to gouge out my eyes, to save me from the ability to see this… I kept crawling and crawling, after a while I began to think that my legs were torn off, that I had no body anymore, but even then I didn’t give up. I clung to the pain, digging my nails into it through the darkness to stay conscious. Ever since Greta’s death, I’ve had this tainted, bile-tasting smell of sickness and death with me. "He shuddered, his face contorted in disgust. "I wanted to vomit. I think I did. I opened my mouth and then some hideous, unnamable taste filled my throat. I couldn’t breath he gasped. My shoulder was on fire. I wanted to die. All my prayers were for a German soldier to plunge his bayonet into me and bring me death. I wanted to give up, yet I dragging myself forward, because somewhere nearby was a ladder. If I could take my hand on it, I could climb to the surface and get out. In the end I never reached it" he breath out the last words.

Before Grace was aware of what she was doing, she was already observing that she had started a determined protest.

"Yes, you did! You left the tunnel behind. It feel’s like you still there, like you’re being swallowed up by the darkness, but you’re already here with me, in this actual, concrete reality." Both her hands were on Tommy's cheekbone, causing Tommy to blink rapidly. "Can you feel that? Because I feel you." Resisting the demand in her blood to put Tommy's face on a level with her own, to give him no choice but to look into her eyes. The words rolled from Grace's lips with a wild freedom. "You are warm and alive. The pain is gone. The bullet wound is here without looking," she traced with her fingers the bruised skin behind his shoulder, its jagged unevenness reminding them both of its origins. Tommy sucked in air, his chest rising. Grace's palm found its way back to his face. "This is real, Tommy. The tunnels, the suffering, the heat, the taste in your mouth, the green-eyes soldier boy can’t touch you. Those things can’t hurt you anymore, because I’m here. You and me, this place is real, safe and constant. We made it that way. You can touch it, you can feel it," she said urgently. "Everything else is in the past. Memories and fears."

Tommy squeezed his eyes shut, shook his head. "They'll come for me again. I know they will," he repeated, his voice hushed. The shaking of his head stopped, his eyelashes fluttered open. "Whenever I close my eyes, they are already there."

"And I am here!" Tommy stared at her in bewilderment, and as she glanced into the irises surrounding the dilated pupils, Grace took the opportunity. She locked their eyes commandingly, blocking the chance of looking away from her, he couldn't even try. Her hold tightened on Tommy's cheek. She leaned toward him with a blazing glare. "In front of you, in your arms. If they want you, they'll have to ended me first! I will not give you without a fight!"

Tommy stared at her in a dazed stupor. "Would you fight them for me?"

Any other time the question would have left his lips with a hint of mocking, making it clear that the irony was as much his own as Grace's. But now it sounded as if it freed in him genuine hope, yearning, trust and fear. He didn't believe anyone would fight for him, Grace understood that early on. He knew that there was no one in the world who would dare to go with him to the field littered with the dead. Until now.

I'd fight the whole world for you, Grace thought. She managed a smile.

"No one's scarier than me when I'm in a rage."

The sound Tommy made was the equivalent of a snort and a sniffle. "My personal experience compels me to confirm this." A brilliant light flickered in his eye. His gaze warmed, but Grace kept her belligerent expression. She replied in an undertone of intimidation.

"Anyone irresponsible enough to hurt someone I'm trying to look after will learn very quickly, at the cost of a hard lesson, why that would be a terrible idea."

A shadow of a smile appeared on Tommy's lips to match his sparkling eyes. Grace relaxed against her will. The convulsive force of gripping Tommy's face in the palm of her hand was no longer tense in the joints between her fingers. Released from the grip of tension, she was still a little afraid that her gratification was premature. Caressing the skin of Tommy's cheekbone, her hesitation disguised as self-control.

"Do I enjoy your protection?" Tommy questioned. Curiosity accompanied the enquiry.

"I am your captain." The sentence followed the announcement included a raised eyebrow. "Do you dare question your superior officer, Sergeant Major?"

Without real devotion, Tommy smiled faintly. He stopped his rising hand in the air between their faces. He eyed Grace with reservations, concerns. Whatever he saw in her, and Grace really couldn't tell what it might be, she supplemented with a nod of agreement.

Tommy ran the back of his hand over her chin. On her cheek, he continued the endearing strokes inspired by kindness, affection and gratitude.

"I wouldn't do that. It is forbidden by military protocol. However, allow me to make an observation. Since you hold the rank of captain, shouldn't it be the other way around? The differences between our ranks dictate that my duty and purpose in life is your service and protection."

Grace had a more flexible view than that.

"No one in my jurisdiction can lay a hand on my people. Unconventional leadership is combined by peculiar principles." She lowered her voice and, tilting her head to one side, motioned toward the other side of the room. "Come back to bad!"

Tommy paused between stroking motions. "You say that like a commander to a member of her team?" There was something about the way he handled the words. It was as if he was testing the limits of this new formation, with which he had made friends at first sight.

Grace projected a seriousness worthy of it.

"I ask you as a woman who wishes to embrace her lover." Then, after a moment's thought, with half-lidded eyes, she approached Tommy. Her hand trailed down the side of his neck, evaded his mouth, touched her lips to his ear. "I miss your warmth," she murmured softly, invitingly.

Tommy's eyes closed. His resigned sigh had an amused theatricality that made them chuckle quietly.

[captainlordauditor]

12!

12. Pick up to 7 characters to star in a Teen Titans ongoing (any era or generation you like). What tone do you envision for this series?

oh boy this is a tough one

Gar Logan/Beast "Boy" (he really needs a new name). I'm picking him as team leader. He's the only one of the seven members of the 90s New Titans team who's never really had a chance to lead, and while most of the others have had the chance to explicitly reject the leadership, he hasn't. I think making him Titans leader would be a real step towards letting him grow and become an adult.

Alinta/Bolt. Of the Titans Academy kids, she and the Batpack were the most interesting, and I think it's a real shame the four of them got tossed into the void. There are already 20 dozen speedsters, sure, but Alinta interests me because she doesn't seem to be explicitly connected to any of the others, which is pretty unusual for a speedster.

Cynthia Reynolds/Cynthia Mordeth/G.psy Charlatan. Cynthia comes with a lot of baggage, but a lot of it can easily be fixed just by changing her name. She's underutilized, should be around Gar's age, and I think her quiet thoughtful demeanor would be an interesting play off of Gar's. If I have to assign five man band archetypes to this, then I'm putting Cynthia in as the lancer.

Danny Chase/Phantasm. I'm usually not one for bringing characters back from the dead, but I think Danny can be resurrected fairly easily without breaking suspension of disbelief (it's been like 10 reboots and he literally pretended to be a ghost when he was alive, guys, c'mon), and I think he kind of got a bit of a bad rep for acting like an actual teenage boy. I don't think I'm crazy for saying it's time we reboot him, and since he reminds me a bit of a younger Gar, I think he'd serve well as a contrast for everyone else.

Otho & Osul Ra/Super Twins - they count as one character, right? Whatever, it's still 6 if they don't. Baby Phaelosians who are new to Earth. I don't think I need to explain this one. They're cute kids, they're new. They're here for exposition purposes, and getting-used-to-humans purposes, and being-adorable-on-main purposes. Also, they, along with Alinta and to some extent Danny, represent the new, younger generation of heroes, who don't perpetually see Gar as an annoying little brother. They actually view him with authority.

Characters I wouldn't give starring roles to but would still show up a lot:

Cyborg. He's Gar's best friend. They're buds. He demands no further explanation.

Kori. I love Kori a lot, but I really think she and the other Tamaraneans should have their own book. If I were fully in charge, I'd probably even take this Titans book to establish comics!Kori and cartoon!Kori as two separate characters, because they are characterized vastly differently, and then have a book about Kori on Tamaran and make cartoon!Kori a reoccurring member of the Titans book. But I feel like that's cheating so she's going in this section.

Deathstroke he and Gar could be nemeses if DC weren't cowards

Mirage - I know, I know, but I don't think she's been properly dealt with, and something about the idea of her interacting with Cynthia is really entertaining to me.

You may notice that, with the exception of Otho & Osul, all of these characters have been on teams before, but none of them are big names. This is very deliberate! I'm not sure how I'd characterize the tone - on the lighter side for me, on the darker side for the Titans, maybe? -, but I want this book to be about growth and to reference things that have happened in past books a lot. I don't mean so much that old villains would be coming back, but rather that I want to circle back to character experiences. Maybe we can circle back to Terra and finally tell things from her perspective? That would be nice...

Also, Trigon is Banned. No Trigon in this book. Come up with other plotlines.